


Monster Prom: The Aftermath

by an_undead_gamer_45



Category: Monster Prom (Visual Novel)
Genre: F/F, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Friendship, M/M, Pining, Role Reversal (Sort of), initially unrequited love
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-14
Updated: 2019-11-25
Packaged: 2020-06-28 10:36:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 25,980
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19810522
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/an_undead_gamer_45/pseuds/an_undead_gamer_45
Summary: you know how the story goes: you have six weeks to seduce one of your classmates and convince them to go out to prom with you, going through all sorts of adventures in the process, and hope that they said yes because prom was the one moment that could decide how the rest of your life would go.but what if, what if it wasn't?our four PC's have been cruelly rejected by their crushes for prom but their lives were far from over, they weren't about to let one little bump in the road of life stop them, they'd move on from their lost loves and make something of themselves.Meanwhile the monsters who rejected them quickly realized that they had made a grave error of judgement and decide to try and get the affections of the color squad back, which they quickly find out is a lot tougher than they'd originally thought.it's two months till graduation and script has been flipped. Welcome to monster prom: the aftermath





	1. the rejection.

Ah the monster prom, the single most important event for any student attending Spooky High; every year it’s the same old story, during the six weeks leading up to the prom the entire educational facility is thrown into chaos (well Spooky High is in a constant state of chaos but somehow the approaching monster prom seems to amplify it) as everyone scrambles to either find dates for prom, exploit those who are scrambling to find dates for profit, or get up to wacky hijinks that they just wouldn’t be able to get away with at any other time. But at the base of it all, it’s the make it or break it moment for many; the monster prom represents a milestone in many a young monster’s lives, a rite of passage if you will. For those who triumph it will be a fond memory for the rest of their lives and possibly the beginning of a lifelong romance, but for others who fail it shall be a moment that will haunt them for the rest of their sad pathetic lives where they will constantly obsess over what could have been.

Now this year in particular was special in the fact that four monsters who were lifelong friends had made it their goal to work together to get each other dates for prom so that they would all have the times of their lives: Oz the fearling, Amira the djinn, Brian the zombie, and Vicky the frankenstein monster.

Over the next six weeks they did everything they could to impress the ones they loved, going with every single hairbrained scheme, helping settle every dispute and issue, and generally being there for their crushes as much as they possibly could (which wasn’t hard since they seemed to conveniently run into their crush everywhere they went and said crush always needed their help with something when they did). They really felt like they formed a genuine connection with their crushes, each one seeming growing closer and closer to them to the point where they all went out on what can be best described as a date with each of them. Their dream of an awesome prom night shared with some of their most charismatic classmates seemed to be guaranteed to come true.

Then it all fell apart at the eleventh hour.

Which was probably why Amira was rampaging through the hallways, torching everything and everyone that crossed her path which did little to quell her rage.

‘Sorry I want to focus on my career...my career of not dating losers like you!’ 

The djinn could not believe Vera shot her down like that, after everything she did to help with the gorgon’s less than legal activities, every favor and piece of advice that she dispensed over the past six weeks, they had even done a successful stint in the stock market a few days ago when they decided to buy one of everything. Amira beared her heart to Vera and she crushed it beneath her three-hundred dollar shoes.

At first she was naturally grief stricken over being so cruelly rejected after she had fallen so hard for Vera, but that grief quickly turned to anger. It was bad enough that Vera rejected her but the fact that she basically laughed her off, even after everything that had gone down and the bond that had formed from it, like the djinn was nothing more than another stepping stone to her criminal empire like everybody else.

‘How fucking dare she do this to me!!’ Amira screamed in her head as she melted a set of lockers to slag.

She wasn’t some punk, she was Amira Rashid: the sharp witted, self-confident, driven djinn who did as she pleased and didn’t take crap from anybody, and Vera turned her down?! Oh that bitch would get what was coming to her, Amira could promise you that.

But before she could cause anymore damage to school property, a dark figure slammed into her body and knocked her aside.

“Hey what the hell do you think you’re-” but Amira froze at the sight of a very familiar yellow cardigan wearing eldritch horror disappearing around the corner, seemingly sobbing his eyes out.

Now that, that was enough to put our her inferno of fury; if there’s one quality in Amira that was stronger than all the others it would be her loyalty to those she cared about, specifically her friends. Seeing Oz run down the hallway crying immediately sent her into ‘overprotective older sister friend’ mode, momentarily forgetting about her cruel rejection to chase down the fearling.

****************************

Meanwhile outside Brian wasn’t fairing much better, his crush had just turned him down for prom and the zombie did not take it well; although he was dealing with his grief in a far less destructive way by banging his head against the school party tree again and again, slowly and methodically.

‘Maybe if I’m lucky my worthless brains will spill out.’ the zombie thought to himself as he slammed his forehead against the wood.

Originally he had gone along with this whole prom bandwagon that his friends had hopped onto because he thought it could be a fun way to close out the year, make some cool memories and maybe even get laid; Brian couldn’t remember what had possessed him to pursue the hipster vampire in the first place, but he ended up falling for him hard.

It was a very gradual process, far different from the love at first sight trope in terrible teen flicks. As Brian learned more and more about Liam over the past six weeks, the more and more he began to see all these wonderful things about the vampire that he had somehow missed before: his passion for artistic expression, his awareness of eco-friendly causes, his devotion to hipster culture, and even how his cold and stern demeanor was merely a cover for how much of a loving and caring dork he was on the inside. It may have been cliché like the aforementioned teen flicks, but Brian had felt like doing this whole prom thing had actually resulted in him finding true love.

Unlike those same teen flicks, instead of getting his happy ever after, the zombie was essentially spat in the face by said vampire who said that he could never hope to reach his level of intellect and coolness, not to mention how it would completely ruin his image to be seen with him.

Cue Brian walking out of spooky high, trying to avoid crying so that he may preserve what little dignity he still retained after such rejection, which brings us to the here and now of him trying to give himself a concussion to numb the pain he felt in his heart.

“Brian are you okay?” 

Brian looked behind him to see Vicky standing behind him, tears in her eyes with an extremely forced smile as if she was trying to make herself appear happy for her friend’s sake. It didn’t take a zombie of his smarts long to figure out what happened.

“You too huh?” said the zombie.

“Wha-”

“Scott turned you down didn’t he.” Brian interjected.

Vicky looked down at her shoes, doing everything she could to hold back tears.

Brian sighed “You wanna go to the crying spot?”

The patchwork girl gently nodded, her gaze not leaving her feet.

Brian spread his arms open, “come here.”

As if on cue, Vicky immediately rushed to her zombie friend and buried her face into his shirt, the fabric quickly becoming soaked with tears.

She really thought he liked her, all the fun stuff they did together from pulling pranks to tongue wrestling, each bit making scott more and more affectionate towards her; now Vicky had actually had a crush on Scott for quite some time now, ever since she first saw him in sophomore year, it wasn’t just his huge beefy body that she fell in love with (although she had to admit he had some yummy muscles.) but also his endless optimism and pure heart which sparked a deep infatuation in her heart for the jock, monster prom was just the perfect way to act on those feelings. She figured that her and Scott would make a sort of ‘dream team’ couple at Spooky High and that she’d easily be able to make him see that in the next six weeks.

Oh how wrong she was, apparently all the kindness she paid towards him to get his attention sent off all the wrong messages.

‘Prom? Sorry Vicky, but I only like you as a friend and I don’t want to mess up our friendship with romantic junk.’

She knew he didn’t mean to hurt her at all; I mean it’s Scott, the second nicest person in Spooky High next to Calculester, he just wasn’t interested in romance it seems and had nothing but pure intentions towards her.

But being friend zoned hurt her in ways mere mortals could never imagine, this wasn’t Scott saying ‘no not now.’ to dating her, this was Scott saying ‘no, never’. Being denied the love she had desired for years, now and forever became too much for her to bare; now instead of playing fetch in the park with that big dumb werewolf, she was crying her eyes out into the shirt of one of her best friends.

Brian hugged her gently, it was so rare to see Vicky so vulnerable. Despite her seemingly fragile appearance Vicky was actually a really tough girl that was nearly impossible to bring down, she was used to rolling with the punches and taking whatever life threw at her with a smile on her face, and when Brian, Oz, or Amira was feeling down she’d always be there to cheer them up by ANY means necessary. 

But for the first time in possibly her entire life, the poor girl’s spirit was shattered much like her heart and now it was up to Brian to pick up the pieces. Although judging by the moisture dripping down his own cheeks, he wasn’t in the best of shape to do so and began to hug her even tighter not just to comfort her but himself as well.

***********************

The bathrooms were unusually empty today, but that was likely due to the fact that prom was tomorrow and everybody was getting ready for their last minute preparations, or at least the ones that were going that is; for a rare moment at Spooky High all was quiet on the western front.

Which suited the depressed puddle of shadow nestled in the corner just fine. He wanted to be alone, he preferred it even, after what had just transpired. Though it didn’t stop any of the little phobias clinging to him from making a desperate effort to cheer him up: coulrophobia was making him tiny little balloon animals, glossophobia was trying to give him a pep talk about how he didn’t need a date for prom, and ailurophobia was nuzzling him as much as it could.

Oz felt like garbage, actually no that would be insulting garbage everywhere, he felt like he was less than garbage. Any bit of self esteem he had built up had now left his form like dust in the wind after what Polly said to him.

Much like the rest of his friends, Oz had gotten on the prom train and went about as crazy as everyone else did, however unlike everyone else he started it less to find love and more to learn how to cut loose and have fun, to stop hiding in the shadows and open up more to others.

And then he started hanging out with Spooky High’s resident partygeist.

There was just sort of an allure about her, the way she moved and spoke, the never ending confidence and boldness that surrounded her, not to mention her ‘ahem’ clothing choices. She was so different from him in so many ways and yet he couldn’t help but feel an attraction to her.

As he spent more and more time with Polly he quickly discovered how much of a positive influence she was upon his life (ironic right?). He quickly found himself being bolder and more fun, taking bigger risks and participating in all sorts of new experiences both good and bad. He was finally coming out of his shell and it was all thanks to her, he even started helping her come up with new pranks for the ‘prank masterz’. Now he may have not been great with social situations but he could see that over time Polly had begun to shamelessly flirt with him, making subtle passes and such, it was the first time he had ever had a genuine romantic connection with somebody.

At least until he found out that he had been played like a piano.

Polly didn’t love him, she barely even cared about him, to her she was just another face in the crowd to chug vodka with or a third wheel to her prank schemes. Polly didn’t sugarcoat it at all, the time they spend together over the past few weeks was totally and completely meaningless.

Now that hurt, a lot, to the point of where Oz felt like the world had been pulled out under his feet leaving him to fall into a void of endless self loathing and sadness.

He stuck his neck out, trying to be fun and get out there for a change and he gets a broken heart for all the trouble. With his confidence in the toilet Oz would probably end up building a sex robot to keep him company in his later years, at least it wouldn’t hurt him like Polly did.

“Hey is this a private pity party or can anyone join?”

Oz looked up from his puddle form to see his djinn friend standing over him with a concerned look on her face.

“Oh. H-hey Amira. How’d it go with Vera?” Oz stuttered out, at least his friends could get a date, he could be happy for-

“She said no Oz, in the most condescending way possible.” 

Wait what?

“S-she said no? But you did so much to help her out!” Protested the puddle.

“I know Oz. I know.” Amira replied.

Great now she was going back to being sad again, but she couldn’t let that happen with a friend in need right in front of her. 

It broke her heart to see Oz like this, reduced to little more than a quivering puddle; he had been doing so well, finally getting out of the personal bubble he had kept himself isolated in for so long, it made Amira proud of the little guy. But now it seems that slut of a ghost has knocked him all the way back to square one. Now she had two people on her shit list.

“Amira please don’t.” Oz said

Amira was quickly snapped out of her thoughts. “Huh?”

“Amira I know that look. Please don’t try to get revenge in my name, it won’t solve anything and it won’t change the fact that I’ll be alone for the rest of my life.”

Amira frowned. “Woah Ozzy, don’t say that, you know that’s not true.”

“But it is. Polly showed that, maybe mom was right, maybe I should just-“

Amira’s flaming fist colliding with the wall combined with the uber serious look on her face shut up the fearling very quickly.

“Do. Not. Go. There. You promised you would never go back Oz.” Amira sighed “now listen to me and listen good, you are NOT garbage.”

“But Amira-“

“Butts are for sitting Oz! Let me put it this way: would garbage be able to start a rave in the middle of the day that escalated to like five hundred monsters?”

“.....no.”

“And would garbage be able to crawl into the stomach of the leader of the wolf pack just to get it’s beef jerky back?”

“No.” Oz replied, this time with more confidence.

“And would garbage be willing to defend their friends at a moments notice no matter the stakes, especially in the grand war that is dodgeball?”

“No!” Oz shouted. 

“then get outta that friggin puddle honey!” Amira said offering her friend a helping hand.

Oz took hold of it as he pulled himself out of a puddle, reforming into his normal scrawny form, a look of determination on his face; one that was unfortunately short lived as it gave way to sad contemplation.

“But….I still can’t understand why she said no….I-I really though she cared Amira, like we could have been something.”

Amira bestowed a warm hug upon her shadowy friend, a comforting warmth similar to sitting in front of a roaring fireplace washing over him.

“Hey it’s okay Oz, sometimes life just kicks you in the balls. I’d know after Vera turned me down…..fucking bitch.”

“Was it really that bad?”

“Oh you have no idea Ozzy, but that’s not important right now, wanna go home, order some pizza, put on some crappy movies, and just forget about this whole thing?” Amira suggested.

“Yeah. That sounds pretty good right about now.” Oz said with a nod of his head. “Hey you think Brian and Vicky had any better luck?”

The duo got an answer sooner rather than later as when they walked out of the bathrooms they immediately ran into the other half of their little friend group, they had stopped crying but their cheeks were still wet with tears.

Amira sighed. “Well it looks like this pity party just became a foursome.”

***********************

“My name is Joe Bob, son of Billy Joe Bob, you ate my father, prepare to die!” said the main protagonist, jumping towards the beast with a homemade katana.

Hours after their heartbreak they had all gotten together at their apartment and put on ‘squidquake 3, terror of tokyo.’; the plot was crazy, the acting hilariously bad, and the effects were even worse, so in other words it was the perfect movie to watch when you just wanted to relax after a long day.

They had raided the pizza parlor for all it was worth and took home towers of pizzas that were now stacked around them, pepperoni pizza was the perfect food for one to drown their sorrows in which is why they had already scarfed down half of their overall haul.

The quartet sat together in one large cuddle pile on their old couch, not a word said amongst them, the entire room was absent of sound apart from the laughably bad movie on the television and the greasy pizza being consumed by the monsters.

For a while they were content to simply be in each other’s presence, wordlessly comforting one another over their misfortune. But eventually one zombie amongst the four got sick of such pathetic silence.

“Okay I’m just gonna say it, how did it go so wrong? I thought everything was going well for us.”

“Apparently not.” Oz remarked. “To think I helped her raid a pudding factory.”

“Wait that was you?” said Vicky. “I wondered where Scott got all that pudding from….”

Oz shrugged. “Love make you do dumb things, like assuming the person you’re in love with actually liked you back.”

Brian nodded. “Amen to that Oz, this whole prom thing was just one big waste of time.” 

The zombie quickly took another swig of soda.

“Probably gonna have to get a refund on that suit too.” He grumbled under his breath.

“Well at least we had fun for the past six weeks right guys?” Said Vicky with a smile that quickly dropped. “Oh who am I kidding, I just wasted six weeks of my life on a werewolf that can barely tie his own shoes. I wish we could go back to monster middle school when things were simple: once or twice a week we’d go on a zany adventure together with each other, sometimes our classmates would join us, we’d learn a lesson and our friendship would be strengthened, just the four of us.”

That’s when a great idea popped into Amira’s head. 

“Hold on...just the four of us….that’s it!” The djinn exclaimed standing up. “This isn’t over, I know how we can have fun at prom!”

Vicky and Brian looked at each other and then back at Amira with a gaze that said they didn’t really believe she had a solution.

“Okay I get it, you’re skeptical. But hear me out on this one: prom posse.” 

“Prom posse?” Brian repeated.

“We go to prom together as a group and have a blast together as friends like we used to, we can get a few drinks, share a couple of dances, and make this a night to remember for all of us. We don’t need Liam, Vera, Scott, Polly, or anybody else to have a good time!”

The trio thought this idea over, it did actually sound pretty good, they had already gone through all this effort for prom and date or no date I’d be a waste of a good party if they didn’t go, plus what better way to spend one of the biggest nights of their high school lives than with the friends they had known since monster elementary school.

“She’s right!” vicky said with a mouthful of mushroom pizza that was soon swallowed. “Who says you need a date to make monster prom great?! Come on guys let’s do it.”

Brian shrugged. “Ah what the hell sure, I didn’t make any other plans for tomorrow night anyways.”

While the walking corpses were sold on the idea, the fearling was still a bit wary of such an outing.

“Fun as it sounds, what are we gonna do if we run into any of...them?” asked Oz.

That was a good point, it would be a phenomenally awkward situation if they ran into any of their former crushes at prom which was a very likely scenario.

“Just play it cool guys, we can’t give any of them the satisfaction of knowing they almost broke us. We’re going to prom to have fun and they’re not gonna stop us just because they couldn’t recognize a once-in-a-lifetime catch if it smacked them in the face and even if it’s hard just remember that we’re all here for each other, right guys?” the djinn replied.

A series of nods was all she needed.

“Okay, okay. I’m in.” said Oz.

“That’s the spirit Oz!” Amira swiftly reached down and plucked up a few toxic waste sodas to each of her friends. “A toast to prom! May it be a night to remember.”

“TO PROM!” the color squad said in unison, clinking the cans together and then downing them with a gulp. Newfound excitement for tomorrow night filling their bodies alongside the toxic sugar water.

What none of them realized at the time was just how one little night could change everything for them, for better or for worse however had yet to be seen.


	2. PROM NIGHT!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> it's prom night! the most epic night at spooky high where all inhibition is thrown into the wind as the students come to party! how will our four main protagonists handle being dateless at prom?

Vicky fiddled with her corsage for what felt like the hundredth time in the past hour, making sure it was absolutely perfect. Prom only came around only once in a monster’s life and she was determined to make it the best night ever; her dress was cleaned and pressed with a black top and polka dotted skirts, makeup carefully applied to her eyes, a quick series of jolts from the old car battery gave her hair it’s classic frizzy look as well as juicing her up for the night, and she had swapped out all of her old stitches for fresh ones.

And yet she still felt like there was some unseen imperfection she was missing. She continued to gaze at herself in the mirror, trying to find the elusive mistake that she had made until a knock came from the bathroom door.

“Vicky do you mind if I come in, the phobias want to style my hair so that it looks okay for prom?” Oz said from the other side of it.

Her teeth, that was it maybe there was something stuck in her teeth.

“Sure go ahead Oz!” Vicky said back, getting some blood flavored floss out to try and make sure there wasn’t any food stuck between the pearly whites, that would have been awkward if that got past her.

As Oz stepped up next to her in the mirror, she spotted what he was wearing out of the corner of her eye and promptly lost it.

“Oh my goodness look at you! You look so adorable in that!” The patchwork girl squealed out, barely resisting the urge to hug him like a big teddy bear

And she was far from wrong in her assertion, the fearling was all done up in a golden yellow tuxedo (not real gold of course, Vera is probably the only one rich enough to afford such a thing.) with an orange tie and black hanky in his pocket to accompany it with just the right amount of disorganization between the small wrinkles and slightly crooked tie to emphasize his adorkable tendencies; said image was only furthered by one of his phobias wearing a top hat with another sporting a tie.

“Hey I am not cute. I am hot, sexy even.” Oz replied in a joking tone as he adjusted his tie.

Vicky chuckled and ruffled her friend’s hair. “You sure are, maybe after you graduate you can get a career in modeling.”

Running a comb through his hair Oz simply replied. “My sex appeal aside, what’s the plan for tonight?”

“Go to prom and have fun? Maybe get blitzed? I thought this was more of something we’d make up as we went along.”

“Yeah you’re right, I know how to have fun at a party. Pol-“ Oz paused for a moment. “Uh, she taught me that.”

Knowing she shouldn’t press the matter any further, She was in the same boat after all, Vicky did a final check to make sure that she looked smoking for the dance and smiled at her reflection.

“Alright! I’m all set, let’s go cut loose at that prom girl!” Said Vicky.

“Go get em’ sister!” The reflection replied.

The duo blinked, looked at each other in disbelief and concern and then looked back at the mirror.

“Well that’s concerning.” Oz remarked.

“Eh let future Vicky worry about it, present Vicky is off to prom! C’mon Oz, Amira and Brian are waiting for us.” Vicky said, waving off the very strange event, chalking it up just to another bit of weirdness that came with their lives.

Amira and Brian stood outside by the former’s phone which had turned into a car (she really had to use that app more often) all dressed up and ready to party.

Amira went for a less traditional form of wear, choosing to wear a black suit with gold buttons as opposed to a dress; a frilly blouse with long sleeves underneath her jacket and a massive bow around the collar, form fitting and accenting her overall fiery personality and features the suit suited her perfectly.

As for Brian his prom attire was much more simplistic as opposed to that of his friends; just a simple dark green suit with a tie matching the color of his trademarked parka, but if you were to look closer you’d see a certain level of wear and tear upon the clothing such as split stitches, small holes, and even subtle dirt stains that were barely even noticeable against the dark surface, and if you were to ask the rotting corpse where all this damage came from he’d bluntly reply that it was the suit he had been buried in when he died.

(it’s not completely certain if he’s telling the truth or not in that regard but it’s impossible to know for sure)

“Ready guys?” said brian, putting away his own phone which unfortunately could not turn into a car.

“As ready as we’ll ever be.” Oz replied.

The four of them quickly piled into the car and headed off towards the most important night of their lives. Tensions were high and the four of them were unusually silent on the ride over.

To be perfectly honest they still weren’t completely over their respective crushes, how could they after all? For the last six weeks they had done so much with those monsters, they laughed, they cried, they committed acts of highly questionable legality, but most of all they bonded with their crushes even if it turned out to be one sided feelings. That was why they were all going to prom as a group; sure they had said that they were going to have the time of their lives (or unlives in Brian’s case) but they all knew that deep down they knew this was really a way to get over the heartbreak, to let go and move on so they wouldn’t end up as an old person sitting on a park bench telling passerby about the time they ‘almost’ got a date for monster prom or be the one to date their bedroom pillow.

No, they weren’t about to let one rejection mess up their entire future, they were stronger than that.

And as they pulled up towards prom, already in full swing, that strength would be put to the test.

“So this is it huh?” said Amira, pulling into the nearby parking lot.

Lights pulsated from the inside of the ballroom, visible through the windows, with a few streamers and balloons set up outside and a massive prom banner hanging over the doors of an otherwise nondescript building. There were already dozens of monsters coming and going from the party in various states of drunkenness.

“Looks like it.” Brian replied. “Are you still sure about this guys?”

“No….” a small voice squeaked out.

Vicky looked to her right to see that the seat formerly occupied by her friend now contained a small puddle of shadow trying it’s hardest to hide within the confines of a yellow tuxedo.

“I-I changed my mind, I can’t do this. You guys go on ahead without me, I’ll stay here and ...guard the car.” the puddle muttered.  
“Oh come on Oz, we already came all this way and you’re giving up now?” Amira said.

“Yes! This was a dumb idea from the start, we’re gonna look like dateless losers!”

“Oz…” Brian started only for Vicky to hold up a hand to him.

“Guys you go on ahead, I’ll handle this.” Vicky replied.

“You sure Vic?” Amira replied.

“Positive.” 

The djinn shrugged and hopped out of the car with her zombie friend, speed walking into the party.

Vicky pointed her gaze at her best friend. “Oz look at me.”

A pair of white eyes peeked out from the neck of the tux.

“Remember the day we first met in monster elementary school?” 

“Well yeah, how could I forget?” Oz replied. “Mom had just sent me here from her dimension and I was completely terrified and out of my depth.”

“You were hiding in the corner of the playground under one of the jungle gyms, trying to melt into the shadows like an awesome ninja.”

Oz chuckled. “And then you came bounding out of nowhere and started asking me tons of questions about what I was, where I was from…..”

“By the end of recess we were best friends.” Vicky replied, finishing his sentence. “And I’ve been there for you ever since just as much as you have for me. Same for Brian and Amira, ever since we met them too.”

“Oh yeah, remember that whole thing in middle school with the treasure map Amira found?”

Vicky smiled, Oz was already reforming into his humanoid form and didn’t even notice yet. “Yep and we got to sail a pirate ship filled with treasure out of the cave. Things were fun back then, but my point is that we’re a team; me, you, Brian, and Amira. We’ll always have each other’s backs through thick and thin, are you really gonna turn your back on that friendship because you’re worried about what everyone else will think? C’mon Oz you’re better than that!”

“You’re right, you’re right!” Oz exclaimed, his form finally fitting his tuxedo. “Who cares about all the other monsters, my friends have my back and I’ve got theirs and that’s good enough for me.”

“You got it, now let’s go! Prom only happens once!” said Vicky, grabbing ahold of Oz’s hand and leading him through the doors.

To be honest the overall grandiose of prom may have been slightly overhyped but that was more the fault of high school students for setting up ridiculously high expectations. It was still an excellent party that made all the outdoor raves that occured on a daily basis at spooky high pale in comparison.

The legendary DJ Boogieman himself was manning the turntables, a large snack table with pretty much everything you could ever want was set up, alongside several monsters who had started passing out drugs and alcohol they had been saving for this occasion (seriously where were the chaperones?), and apart from the dancing there was just a plethora of monsters getting up to all sorts of crazy stuff on the biggest night of their lives.

“Still think it would have been a good idea to stay in the car?” said Vicky.

“Okay okay you made your point, I’m glad I came now where’s-”

A very familiar fangirlish squeal cut off Oz as a writhing mass of tentacles pushed it’s way through the crowd.

“Hey guys!” Zoe shouted, knocking a mummy to the floor with a final shove. “You look great! Exactly how I imagined your prom outfits in my fanart!”

“Wait you’ve been drawing fanart of us?” Vicky asked.

“Pffft. don’t look so surprised, I draw fanart of everybody, sometimes in various states of undress.”

Zoe had them there, she did like to make fanfiction and fanart of ...well everything.

“Anyways, where are your dates? I need more fuel for my PollyxOz and ScottxVicky fics.”

And with that their faces immediately dropped; great just great, they hadn’t even been there for a minute before someone had to go and remind them of their failure.

“Umm, Zoe that whole thing with our crushes it….it didn’t really pan out…” Oz replied.

Zoe let out a shocked gasp. “W-what?! They rejected you?! But you guys made such adorable couples! I thought for sure you guys would have become canon, I even made the ship names: dark souls and carpet shock! I mean how could they….”

The eldritch cutie trailed off when she noticed that both the monsters had very crestfallen and upset looks on their faces.

“I’m...I’m only making it worse aren’t I?”

The duo simply nodded.

“I’ll shut up now….If you need me I’ll be over there.”

Zoe quickly sank back into the crowd, disappearing behind a rather heavyset troll.

“Well, there goes my good mood.” Remarked Oz.

“Mine too. Oh look, there they are” added Vicky as she pointed to where Brian and Amira were sitting.

“Actually, I-I think I’m gonna go it alone for a bit.” 

“Really?”

Oz shrugged. “I’ll be fine, I can’t hide behind you guys all the time right?”

“I suppose not. But if you need us, you know where we are. Have fun.”

Oz quickly made his way into the crowd just as Zoe had mere moments ago while Vicky sat with the rest of her friends.

“Well I think I’m gonna go check out the snack table. I think I saw some fresh brain there.” Said Brian, standing up as soon as Vicky sat down.

“Didn’t you eat a liver before we left?” 

“Yeah but do you know how hard it is to get a good brain in monsteropolis? I’m not passing up the opportunity.” 

The zombie sauntered off, leaving the djinn and the Frankenstein monster alone together. But not for long as another guest soon joined them.

“Greetings friend Vicky and friend Amira.” 

A set of greetings was given in reply to the robot who took a seat between the two females.

“Has your prom experience been satisfactory so far?” Said Calculester.

“Eh. Could be better.” Amira replied, taking a sip out of a flask that she had somehow snuck in under her jacket.

“Oh. Does it have anything to do with the fact that you all failed to procure dates for the festivities? If so you have my sympathies.”

Vicky groaned and slammed her head on the table. “Why does everybody have to keep bringing that up?”

“Apologies. I did not mean to trigger negative emotions.”

“It’s fine. I’m just bummed out that I’m never gonna get that prom dance I always dreamed about.” Vicky muttered, still facedown on the table.

“Would it help if I were to offer you a dance myself?” The computer said.

That made Vicky lift her head from her puddle of sorrow to look at Calculester.

“Really?”

“Yes. The primary objective of a friend is to cheer them up when they are feeling sad. You are unhappy because you do not have a significant other to dance with, therefore the obvious solution to such a problem is to be that significant other and dance with you which in turn will cheer you up. The math checks out I assure you.”

Vicky pondered the offer for a moment, yes it wouldn’t be the same as having a dance with a certain werewolf but ...it would be better than nothing, who knows Cal might actually turn out to be a fairly decent dancer, besides it might help her get over Scott faster.

“Aw what the heck. I’d be a shame if I came to prom and didn’t dance.”

In possibly the most perfect timing in the universe, a slow dance song came on right then and there.

“Initiating chivalry protocol.” said Cal before bending down and offering Vicky his hand “m’lady. Shall we dance?”

Vicky giggled. “We shall.”

The robot swiftly lead his new dance partner away from the table, leaving Amira by herself.

“Alone again, alone again, whoop de do.” said Amira, taking another swig from her flask. She had been hoping that they would have stuck together for a bit longer being a prom posse and all.

‘Oh well, at least we’re all having fun. Besides the night is still young.’ Amira thought.

Though she was so focused on her drink that she didn’t notice the gorgon rapidly approaching the table.

*******************************

‘It figures’ Oz thought to himself as he stormed off the dance floor.

Here he was ready to bust a sick move on the dance floor and even do ‘the groovy moussaka’ which is totally a legitimate dance move and not something he made up on the spot a few weeks ago. But then the Dj played a slower song only meant for couples to dance to and have an adorable romantic scene together.

However for single prom-goers like himself it was nothing more than a boring song that forced him to hang out against the wall with all the other dateless losers.

He was getting very quickly getting bored of prom and needed something to do fast, luckily he collides with someone who can give him such an opportunity.

“Hey watch it noo- oh hey Oz.” said Damien.

The demon prince pulled his shadowy friend into a playful noogie, releasing him after the latter’s hair had been decently messed up.

At first glance you’d never expect Damien and Oz to be friend, much less close friends, especially considering that the demon knocked Oz flat on his ass the first time they met for reasons that nobody really cared about.

But as time went on and the two kept running into each other again and again, especially during prom season, they sort of grew on each other and became fairly decent friends; primarily because Oz has managed to pull off some pretty crazy stuff that impressed Damien as well as helping him out with a few classes to finally get his dads off his back, while the demon was kind of like an older brother to Oz, he’d pick on the cardigan wearing noob just as much as everybody else (although not as roughly) but if anybody else tried to give Oz a hard time they would mysteriously burst into flames. Damien is nowhere near the level that Brian, Vicky, and Amira are on in terms of friendship but he’d say that they’re fairly close, enough to go out drinking together and then burn the place down.

“Hey Damien. How are you?” Said Oz as his phobias rushed around to fix his hair, one of them waving a tiny fist at Damien in anger.

“Having a wicked night so far, goin stag was a great choice. Gives me so many more opportunities to mess with people.”

Right then a sasquatch ran past them screaming while being chased by a swarm of locusts.

“Locusts huh? Not bad.” Oz remarked.

Damien shrugged with his trademarked smile. “I was gonna do wasps but then I realized that’s what everyone was doing and I wanted to be a bit more original in my bullying. So anyways where’s your date? I expected you to be busy sucking face with Polly right about now.”

Oz’s shoulders fell as he mumbled something out.

“What the hell did you say?”

Oz spoke, this time with a bit more volume and a downtrodden tone “I said she didn’t want to go to prom with me.” 

“Oh shit...sorry man, didn’t mean to bring that up.” damien replied with an awkward scratch of the head. “Hey I know what’ll make you feel better-“

“If you say anything involving arson I’m gonna have to decline.”

“Uh no, this is better, I heard they were doing drinking games in the next room over, wanna come with?”

Now ladies and gentlemen, there are two things you should never do on the heels of a devastating rejection: one is make rash decisions and the other is drinking heavily.

Oz was about to do both right now.

He had already had plenty of experience in the area of drinking games from the time he spent with a certain ghost so he was mostly desensitized to it, if anything Oz figured it would be a great way to loosen himself up for the rest of the evening and have fun now.

“Okay. Lead the way.” Said the eldritch being.

Damien smiled and put an arm over Oz’s shoulder, leading him away from the main hub of the prom. “Now that’s what I like to hear. Let’s start with some keg stands…..”

Meanwhile across the room Liam’s head snapped up from a prom selfie he was in the middle of perfecting to see Oz being lead away by Damien, a sight that gave him some level of confusion. Unlike the rest of his friends he was well aware of how the rest of the so called ‘color squad.’ Had failed to get dates for prom, especially that brain dead fool Brian. But he had assumed that they would just all go off crying for the rest of their lives having lost their one chance at glory, not go to prom alone in spite of it.

‘I wonder’ Liam thought to himself as his eyes scanned the room.

He quickly spotted a familiar mop of messy black hair at the refreshment table, seemingly oblivious to the fact that Polly and Scott were dumping god knows what into the punch bowl.

Liam assumed that he’d give the zombie a brief glance and nothing more but for some reason he found himself staring a bit longer than was strictly necessary and noticed that the zombie seemed slightly downtrodden despite the occasion. 

While normally he wouldn’t care about something so trivial, when he saw Brian standing there alone with a subtlety depressed look on his face the hipster vampire couldn’t help but feel ...bad.

Not the type of bad that meant he felt pity but the kind of bad that made him feel like this was his fault.

Which was more than enough for him to begin approaching the zombie from behind.

“Hey.” Said Liam.

Brian glanced at the vampire for a brief moment before turning his focus back to the pile of brain he was building up on his plate, remaining silent.

“Oh so you’re ignoring me now?” The vampire continued.

“I thought you’d be doing the same to me. After all you made it pretty clear how beneath you I was.” The zombie replied rather gruffly. “So what is it, did you come to talk down to me some more?”

Okay, that actually hurt a little.

“I guess I’m just fascinated by the fact that you decided to attend prom all by-“

“Save it Liam.” Said Brian, shutting up the vampire. “I went to prom to have fun with my friends and nothing else. I don’t care about what you want to say to me or why you suddenly took an interest in me, I just want to have one last good memory of high school before graduation.”

The zombie was about to turn on his heel to leave when a thought popped into his rotting brain.

“Oh and before I forget, here.”

Brian shoved a neatly wrapped package into Liam’s hands, it was flat and firm like a tablet.

“I was going to give you this as a present when we went together to prom. But that’s never gonna happen now, the only reason I didn’t destroy it because it’s against my beliefs to destroy a work of art.”

Then the zombie finally turned around and walked away, popping bits of brain into his gaping maw, leaving a semi stunned vampire behind holding the present.

Holding back his curiosity about the present for the time being, Liam stored it his jacket and walked away. A bit shaken by how cold Brian was when he spoke to him and the vast contrast to how he typically acted around the hipster.

Brian pushed past the werewolf and ghost that made up the prank masterz, uttering a brief apology as he did so.

“Hey wasn’t that Brian?” Remarked Scott.

“Uh I think so?” Replied Polly, still dumping the unknown chemicals into the punch while somehow avoiding everyone’s notice.

“He’s looking a lot better after yesterday.”

Polly raised a spectral eyebrow. “Why? What happened yesterday?”

“Oh I just saw him walking through the hallways looking really sad. Like he was trying not to cry. I wonder if Oz is feeling better too.” The werewolf explained

That got Polly’s attention, causing the container to slip out of her hands and drop into the bowl.

“Wait what was up with Oz?”

Scott shrugged. “All I know is that I bumped into him in the halls after gym class, little bro was bawling like crazy, it must have been something pretty bad for him to be that upset.”

Right then Polly immediately felt guilt began to crawl up her back, sure she wasn’t into the little dork in a romantic way but she didn’t think that turning him down would hurt him that much. She just wanted everyone to party and have fun, knowing that she made someone cry didn’t really sit that well with her….

“Oh crap. Maybe I was a bit too harsh on him, I should go say sorry or something. Hey Scott did you see if Oz is here? Scott?”

But Scott wasn’t listening, he had tuned Polly out when he spotted what was happening on the dance floor.

Specifically Vicky sharing a dance with Calculester, his hand on the small of her back and her head buried in his shoulder with a blissful smile on her face.

Scott didn’t like it, which was weird since he should have been happy for one of his friends having a good time at prom. But something about seeing cal dancing with Vicky like that stirred something in the werewolf, the same type of feelings when another member of his pack was in trouble. He wanted the robot to take his hands off the girl, to stop dancing with her right now, and he wanted to go over there and rip off his stupid…

‘Woah. Where did that come from’ thought Scott, trying to shake the angry thoughts from his head. ‘What’s going on? Why am I feeling like this?’

Meanwhile Vicky was bursting at the seams with joy, literally some of it was starting to leak out of her stitching.

(or that may have just been pus, hard to tell.)

Here she was sharing a magical moment during prom with a being who was anything but magical. Calculester really was a great dancer, especially considering he was nothing more than a library computer at the start of the year but that’s a story for another time, the way he moved and swayed with her inside of his grasp, it felt as though she was floating along the dance floor.

She leaned in further to the robot, closing her eyes and smiling, for a moment she forgot about all the bad stuff that had happened to her in the last day or so, all her worries simply melted away along with the rest of the world. For a brief moment in time it was nothing more than her and Calculester dancing with one another, nothing else but a beautiful void surrounding them and it was perfect.

‘Maybe I should have asked him to prom instead of scott.’ Vicky thought as Cal gently dipped her down.

Because all of her focus was upon the pseudo-romantic moment she was sharing with the robot holding her in his arms, Vicky completely missed the scene developing not too far away from her.

Vera was the type to keep a watchful eye during any social situation, a woman of her tact and standing would be a fool not to, and quickly picked up on the fact that there was a monster at prom that certainly shouldn’t have been:

Amira Rashid, the djinn who foolishly thought she actually had a chance with the most popular girl in school, was sitting by herself at a table taking drags from a flask; but instead of a look of sadness on her face like Vera was expecting, she saw one of calm happiness, as if she was enjoying the solitude at prom.

That seriously bothered Vera for a number of reasons; but the main one being that it seemed as though Amira was already over the gorgon’s rejection. Vera had expected Amira to still be broken up over her little rejection, staying home and shoving unhealthy food into her face out of grief, not enjoying prom by herself. 

While she did have some level of respect for Amira choosing to go dateless instead of depending on a romantic partner, the fact that she seemed completely unscathed by yesterday’s events made her a tad uneasy.

‘Is she playing at something here? Maybe she’s just barely holding it together right now, her friends have seemed to have abandoned her….she’s vulnerable.’ Vera thought with a wicked smile.

The gorgon began to casually stroll over to the table, Amira would probably start breaking down as soon as she said a single word, begging and pleading for her to give the djinn a second chance, agreeing to whatever schemes she could concoct, doing anything and everything to capture her heart ...this was going to be fun.

“Hello Amira.” said Vera.

“Go fuck yourself.” Amira replied without a moment’s hesitation.

Vera blinked in bewilderment, completely caught off guard, she did not see this sort of response coming at all. But she maintained her composure.

“Now is that anyway to greet a friend?” 

“Last time I checked we weren’t friends Vera. Or are you making a habit of befriending ‘losers’ now?” 

Vera pursed her lips. “Well, it's just that you seem awfully upbeat for somebody who just realized how little they matter.”

Amira chuckled, taking another sip of alcohol and turned to vera.

“That’s where you’re wrong Vera, not just about me about all of us. You see me and my friends as losers but we’re better than every last one of you, we bent over backwards trying to show you guys that, to show you just how incredible and unique each and every one of us was, we went along with every scheme, every adventure, every problem you had we were there to help. Sure we messed up but who hasn’t, the point is we were driven and dedicated to being there for the ones we cared about Vera, something you clearly know nothing about. I should thank you though, because you made me realize something ...”

Amira leaned in closer, getting right up in Vera’s grill.

“I don’t need you or anyone else to know I’m great, I know I’m great and you know what there’s a lot of monsters out there who would agree with me. So while you might have broken my heart, you’ll never break my spirit. And that goes for all of us, Vicky, Brian, Oz, all of us, we’re stronger than you think Vera.”

The djinn slammed her now empty flask down onto the table as a way of finishing her passionate speech.

“See ya round bitch.” 

With that the girl flipped her former crush the bird and walked off.

Vera was nothing short of stunned, instead of being a broken husk, Amira had seemed to rise from the ashes of her broken heart stronger than ever and made it quite clear that she no longer desired Vera’s approval, in fact it seemed to be the opposite.

And for some reason the gorgon found it irresistibly attractive.

***********************

Some time had passed during monster prom and the party was in full swing; Amira was over in the corner showing off some of her fire tricks and igniting a few students in the process, Vicky and Calculester’s dance had ended long ago and now she was talking with Miranda and Valerie about various topics, Brian was seated at another table playing poker with some other students and seriously winning if the size of his chip stacks was anything to go by, and Oz was, well….

The fearling kicked open the door to the locker rooms, a crown fashioned from beer cans clutched in one hand and an empty bottle of vodka clutched in the other. In his wake he left a pile of defeated competitors on the locker room floor behind him, Damien, Dahlia, and the Wolfpack amongst them. 

They had certainly put up a good effort against him but it was an utterly meaningless battle, Oz didn’t spend six weeks with Polly, partying endlessly, without picking up a few tricks on how to win drinking contests.

When it was over the Sumerian goddess of beer herself, Ninkasi, phased into the realm to congratulate Oz and bestow the beer crown upon him as well as an invitation to party with the other gods. An offer he would certainly take her up on sometime.

As for now, however, he was totally wasted and would probably wake up tomorrow with the worst possible hangover; but that was a problem for future Oz, present Oz wanted to do something bold, he wanted to do something fun, he wanted-

“This is DJ Boogieman giving a pressin’ announcement, the karaoke machine is open and awaiting requests.

‘Oh yeah, that’ll do’ Oz’s drunken mind said as the fearling stumbled to the stage, his phobias swaying with every step.

****************

Polly did not expect it to be so difficult to find Oz at prom.

Normally when she needed something from him he would either pop up at just the right moment or she’d be able to track him down like a bloodhound.

But now she had gone around the gym at least five times and hadn’t seen even a glimpse of him. She shook down/seduced a bunch of guys and was no closer to tracking the little nerd down. Maybe she should just call it quits and apologize to him later, if he’s at prom he’s probably-

“Alright dudes and dudettes. Give it up for Oz!”

Oh there he is, up on stage with a karaoke machine next to him. Weird, she never took him for the signing type.

“Now old Oz will be signing out a very fitting tune: fear and delight!” The DJ said, laying down the track:

As the music came on, Oz took in a deep breath, steeled his nerves through his drunken stupor and began to sing.

 _Oh, but I know you'll cause me grief_  
_Close friends of mine are in disbelief_  
_As they can see what's underneath  
Fluttering lashes, red lips and pearly white teeth_

__

_____ _

_I don't show it but I quiver whenever you come near_  
_And I cannot decipher between the thrill and the fear_  
_I want to stop it but I like it too much to let it stop here_  
_It's wrong but I want you tonight_  
_It's not my own volition but I fell in deep_  
_By running the distance I'd been advised to keep_  
_I trot to the wolf as a doting and sheep  
It's wrong but I want you tonight_

_____ _

_Fear and delight_  
_All the way through the night_  
_With a little daring do  
I'll fall in love with you_

_____ _

_I'm the little boy that's gonna be getting fingers burned_  
_But I can see this lesson's gotta, gotta, gotta be learned_  
_They say that boys have been destroyed but they weren't_  
_it's wrong but I want you tonight_  
_In any case, my friends, it's too late_  
_Like a moth to light, like a beast to bate_  
_and I know the black widow eats its mate  
It's wrong but I want you tonight_

_____ _

_Fear and delight_  
_All the way through the night_  
_With a little daring do  
I'll fall in love with you_

_____ _

I'm an innocent being seduced by your charms  
_I'm a young boy tickled to death in your arms_  
_Your kisses taste like bitter almonds_  
_It's wrong but I want you tonight_  
_You're an addiction pulling me to a grave end_  
_You're an enemy who I'm keen to defend_  
_Down the black hole of my lust I descend  
It's wrong but I want you tonight_

_____ _

_____ _

To his credit Oz was actually a pretty good singer, especially considering he had shotgunned about thirty-two beers not five minutes ago, sure he had nothing on Vicky but he could certainly carry a tune and that was more than enough to win over the crowd who was cheering for him. As his confidence grew so did his form, his tentacles began to sprout from his back and lift him into the air, the phobias growing larger and more detailed, and his mouth taking a visible shape as he belted out the next lyrics.

_Fear and delight_  
_All the way through the night_  
_With a little daring do  
I'll fall in love with you_

_____ _

_____ _

_Why is it that I'm keen to be devoured by you_  
_When there's the option of a love affair that's pure and true_  
_I always choose the dungeon over the sea view_  
_It's wrong but I want you tonight_  
_When I'm out the other side I say never again_  
_But when I'm out and about about I want to find the next vixen_  
_Someone who'll be sure to drive me 'round the bend  
It's wrong but I want you tonight_

_____ _

_____ _

_Fear and delight ___  
_All the way through the night ___  
_With a little daring do __  
I'll fall in love with you_

____

____

__

____

The crowd was practically screaming his name as Oz did a stage dive, landing upon a sea of hands and claws that soon carried him off to further the party.

Polly was left behind during all the excitement, her jaw having unhinged and fallen to the floor in reaction to the skeptical she had just witnessed. She had no idea Oz could sing, not only that but he could sing REALLY well and look damn sexy while doing it. But the most important question in her mind was:

‘Since when did he have tentacles?’

She quickly gave chase to the crowd with the intent of pushing past the raving fans to ask Oz a large series of questions, many of them involving various pieces of japanese media that Liam had tried to introduce her to.

**********************

The rest of prom night was a blur, likely because all the crap Polly put into the punch bowl finally started to kick in sending everything deep into the bowls of alcohol fueled insanity, everyone partied like it was the end of the world and with all the interdimensional beings phasing in and out of the ballroom it might have been for a bit of time.

Oz had given himself party fever and soon gave it to his friends who took advantage of the night to completely and utterly cut loose and participate in a wide range of debaucherous activities with the rest of their friends that (thankfully) nobody would remember come the next morning.  
From Zoe leveling a city to Calculester ‘liberating’ an electronics store to Miranda’s well choreographed musical number about being a princess, they did it all.

But most of all for one night, the four members of the color squad were the kings and queens of the school and nobody could take that away from them; at least not until the next morning when the hangovers would start and newly discovered feelings that had laid dormant in certain monsters would come to light.

It truly was a magical night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry if it seems like I rushed this at the end, I felt like the prom scene had been dragging on and needed a way to end it quickly.
> 
> But yeah, prom has come and gone and now everyone will have to deal with the fallout of what occurred that night until graduation rolls around.
> 
> P.S. fear and delight belongs to the correspondents.


	3. the morning after

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> hangovers and new feelings ahoy! there be drama on the horizon.

Drip.

Drip.

Drip.

Brian woke up with a start to the sound of dripping liquid, his hollow bloodshot eyes cracking open to greet the day.

Once they focused themselves, the zombie realized that not only was he face down on the floor but he also found himself with a pounding headache that felt like someone had cleaved his skull in two with a fire ax. 

Knowing he couldn’t stay there on the ground forever, as much as he would like to, Brian rose up to a standing position only to regret it almost immediately as it made him acutely aware of how much pain the rest of his body was in, like he had risen from the dead all over again.

As the last of his haze cleared up, the zombie finally got a good look at their surroundings and could only come up with a single phrase in response:

“God damn….”

He was back home which was a big plus but the entire place was completely and utterly trashed from top to bottom; various containers of alchohol strewn about, a motorcycle crashed into the wall where the tv should have been, the main hall converted into a makeshift bowling alley.

And that was just what he could see in the immediate vicinity, there was probably dozens of other crazy crap in here that they’d have no memories of doing.

Brian was gazing at the manikin parts duct taped to the ceiling while trying to ride out the initial hangover when he heard the shattering of glass coming from the next room over, shortly after Vicky came through the door backwards, stumbled over her own feet, and fell on her butt with a groan.

Brian could only stare at his friend as she got back to her feet, revealing that she was wearing a baggy t-shirt, a pair of panties, and not much else. 

The girl didn’t pay him any mind as she shuffled past the couch, stepping over a djinn still passed out on the floor with a blanket draped over her, and entered the bathroom.

Moments later, Vicky ran out screaming, running full speed into Amira’s sleeping form and tripping over the girl, landing on the floor face first with a thud.

“Ow! Vicky what the hell?!” Yelled Amira as she clutched her side.

“Amira do not go into the bathroom!” Vicky screeched.

“Vicky calm down and put on some pants.” Amira replied while rubbing her eyes.

“AMIRA THERE IS A BUGBEAR IN THE BATHROOM!”

“Wuh-what’s going on?” Asked Brian 

Amira peeked her head through the door before gasping and slamming it back shut.

“Woah she’s not kidding there really is a bugbear in there!”

Brian sighed, stood up and picked up a conveniently placed warhammer next to him. (Likely from last night) and walked into the bathroom.

A series of crashes and thumps resonated from the other side of the door, ending with a crash of the window, and followed by the fleeing form of a bugbear running past the front of the house and down the street.

“It’s too fuckin early for this shit guys.” Brian muttered.

“Tell me about it.” Said Vicky, trying a towel around her waist to cover her modesty. “Holy crap did we do a number on this place, it’s gonna suck when we have to clean this up.”

“Don’t worry, I made a few connections from hanging out with Vera and have a few favors. I’ll call them in.” Amira remarked “what did we do last night?”

“No idea, after Oz gave us those candies everything went black.” Said Brian, dropping back to his spot on the couch.

Amira chuckled. “Oh yeah I remember that part. I didn’t think Oz had it in him to do all that stuff. Speaking of which where is the little guy?”

“Hey guys, I can’t find Oz.” Said Vicky.

“You check all the rooms Vic?”

“Yeah I did, he’s not in any of them.”

“Well give him a call, he can’t be too far.”

Right then Vicky felt a buzz against her loins, when she looked down her towel she noticed an odd vibrating brick shaped bulge against her underwear. 

Pulling it out, the Frankenstein girl discovered that it was her cell phone and speak of the devil, Oz was trying to call.

“Hello? Oz?”

“Hey Vicky. You alright?” The fearling Said from the other side, slightly out of breath.

“Yeah, Amira, Brian, and I all woke up at home. Where are you?”

“Well from what I can tell I’m stuck on the roof of spooky high.” Replied Oz.

“YOU’RE WHAT?!”

“Look, I-I don’t remember what happened last night, the last thing I remember was doing karaoke and then nothing. Can your please come get me? It’s getting hot up here and the door’s locked from the other side.”

“On it Oz.” Vicky nestled her phone back against her cooter. “Okay well I just found him, Amira get the car, we need to go back to spooky high.”

“No can do Vic.” Amira replied as she poked through the blinds.

Vicky walked up beside her friend to see that the car in question was currently overturned on the lawn with large amounts of damage.

Vicky pinched her brow, this was not how she hoped the morning after prom would have gone.

*********************

Meanwhile across town in a more gentrified area, a certain vampire awoke from his slumber.

Unlike most of the prom goers Liam was one of the few smart enough to not get completely blitzed and instead only got mildly wasted so as to ensure he did not endure another hangover.

While he was free from the burden of a headache, the blanks in his memories of last night was concerning nonetheless.

‘Ah well, what’s done is done. I just hope I’m not in any drunken selfies, that would be terribly passé.’ Liam thought to himself.

He yawned as he entered his bamboo kitchen, searching for some free range O positive.

But when he bit into the chilled blood bag he noticed a splash of color out of the corner of his eye.

It was brian’s present, still perfectly wrapped from last night’s events, and completely undisturbed on his kitchen table.

Liam huffed, it was probably some kind of generic hipster gift like an obscure book or a poorly written poem if it was from Brian, at least he was gracious enough to use biodegrabable wrapping paper with a rather complex design.

Still would be a shame if he never opened the present at all just to see what the zombie was going to give him as a prom date.

Carefully unfolding the flat object from it’s paper prison, making sure not to rip or tear the paper, Liam noticed that it appeared to be a framed photo of some kind.

When he had finally gotten it off, his breath hitched in his throat and his cold heart dropped into his stomach.

It was a picture of him, or rather a hand drawn portrait of him done in pencil sketch with Brian’s messy signature at the bottom, unlike the drawing itself which was EXTREMELY well done even by Liam’s high standards.

‘Funny, I don't even remember posing for this’ thought Liam as he admired the sketch.

It wasn’t an sort of significant event depicted, it was simply the vampire sitting at his desk during one of the evening classes he attended but perhaps that’s what made it so special, the simplistic and minimalistic nature of the piece greatly emphasized his special physical qualities but not so much so that it would be off putting. The way the difference in shading portrayed how the moon light bounced off his light purple skin giving it a light glow, the painstaking texture put into every inch of the piece, and just how well Brian had managed to capture the overall aura of coolness the vampire gave off. Then he noticed that it was also done on notebook paper as opposed to any sort of sketch pad or canvas which only served to make it seem like brian barely put any effort into this at all and yet still managed to turn it into a masterpiece.

Flipping the frame over, Liam was greeted with a handwritten note attached to the back.

‘I drew this in class a few days before prom started, just for you, I hope I captured your natural essence well enough.’ followed by several hearts and the same signature that was on the front of the drawing. It was simple, blunt, and quick to the point; so in other words it was meeting all of his standards.

That feeling he felt when he saw Brian last night, the feelings of guilt and self loathing, right now it returned in full force and was slightly amplified by this gift.

But the vampire quickly shook it off, just because Brian somehow managed to make one semi-decent romantic gesture that genuinely spoke to his tastes and feelings didn’t change the fact that he simply didn’t have an interest in the zombie.

However something about that drawing and how Brian put in the effort just for him just kept him in Liam’s head. As well as his many attractive features from his slightly toned build, to his messy hair that he seemed to pay no attention to at all, to the worn out parka that he always wore that seemed to be very nearly vintage, to how all the facial scars only added to his handsome face…

A series of buzzes from his phone snapped him out of a trance as Liam realized that the drawing was very close to his face and he had been staring at it for a good half-hour now, gently placing it back down upon his coffee table Liam took a look at just which of his social media apps had started blowing up after prom.

‘Whatever, just because he has some artistic talent doesn’t mean I want to pursue a relationship with him…..right?’ Liam thought, unsure if he really believed himself.

**********************************

At the same time across town another partier was waking up from her own hangover, luckily she knew exactly how to treat it.

Now one would think that her party girl mindset would cause Polly Geist to cure a hangover with even more alcohol but you’d be wrong, instead Polly actually acts responsible for a change because otherwise she would only make the pain worse.

After dragging herself out of bed, she was pleased to find out that she had in fact woken up in her own bed instead of somewhere else crazy which was always a good way to start the day for her, Polly soon began to make her way towards the kitchen in her house to whip up her famous hangover cure omelette.

Prom had been just as legendary as she had hoped, she managed to cross a LOT of things off the old bucket list and while naked BASE jumping wasn’t on it, once she tried it she immediately added it to the list only to cross it off just as quickly.

But there was one thing above all else that stood out about that night, it wasn’t that weird shadow kid doing limbo, it wasn’t that meat boy jumping off walls shouting about his girlfriend, and it wasn’t those super creepy animatronic animals (although those were all memorable moments)

No what stood out to her was a certain boy going by the name of Oz, before she had thought that he was just another geeky face in the crowd who thought that he could keep up with her ghostly energy, Polly never really gave him much thought apart from when he helped her out.

Now though? Now her eyes have been ripped open to what Oz truly is, underneath his adorkable timid demeanor was a raging party animal just scratching and screaming to be unleashed.

And last night that side of him was on full display for all to see and Polly fucking loved what she saw.

Yes his friends certainly kept the party going and did their fair share of crazy stuff all to have a good time, but Oz was the undisputed party king that night and prom was his kingdom with his friends as mere knights of fun under his rule.

It didn’t hurt that they stole a throne from a furniture store and carried it down main street with him sitting on it but that’s beside the point, what mattered is that she was now well aware of the fact that Oz really was everything she wanted in a boyfriend and by god she was going to act on those new feelings.

As she cracked the eggs in the pan and tossed in the bacon Polly sprouted a Cheshire smile.

She knew what her next moves would be, she wanted to see more of that party animal that she saw last night, so she’d find Oz, apologize for being wrong about him, they’d make up (or make out hopefully.), and then she would slowly build up his confidence to draw out his party instincts and in turn his best qualities, then and only then will Oz and her become an unstoppable party power couple that will spend the rest of eternity living every single day as if it was their last.

A small line of drool began to drip down her chin, she could already imagine all the freaky tentacle sex that they could have not to mention all the other weird stuff that Oz could do, I mean those tentacles are probably only the rim of the glass, he’s probably able to a bunch of other kinky stuff too!

Then a thought suddenly hit Polly like a runaway freight train, derailing her own plans:

‘How much do I actually know about the guy?’ 

Flipping the egg in the pan as she poured in several veggies, Polly tried to find an answer to that question.

“Well he knows how to have a good time, always hangs out with Brian, Amira, and Vicky, loves to help out his friends and….and, uh…”

Rack her brain as she might, Polly soon realized she knew next to nothing about Oz apart from the obvious despite hanging out with him for a good six weeks now…did that make her selfish? Never really paying attention to him while saddling him with all her zany problems?

Polly decided that no, that did not make her selfish because Oz did all of that stuff by choice.

‘Besides’ polly thought as she emptied a pistol clip into the egg, meat, and veggie mixture so that it would return as a ghost omelette. ‘He was crushing on me hard, he’ll forgive me in a heartbeat. After all nobody can resist Polly Geist.’

When school started back up again tomorrow it would be the beginning of a beautiful relationship that would last a lifetime.

Or at least that was what Polly believed would happen.

****************************

At yet another different house, Vera Oberlin stirred.

When she felt the weight of an arm draped over her side, Vera reflexively began to reach for the dagger stored in her nightstand but stopped when she felt a familiar coat of fur wrapped around said arm and actually took the time to look behind her, smiling warmly at the sight.

It was just her sister Valerie, passed out in bed right next to the gorgon, snuggling up to her sibling in a big spoon position. Vera let her arm fall limp over the side of the bed seeing that there wasn’t a creep in her bed at all and relaxed her posture.

While Vera was in her one-thousand dollar silk jammies imported from japan, Valerie went for a much more casual sleepwear of a rock t-shirt and sweatpants; while they may have shared a family and a drive for business that was where the similarities ended, as far as personalities go the sisters were essentially polar opposites but despite that they were extremely close.

Vera chuckled lightly, the two of them must look almost exactly like they did when they were kids; when one of them would have a nightmare or get scared for any reason during the night they would come over to the other’s room and sleep with them in their bed to comfort each other like one would with a stuffed animal. In fact Vera was pretty sure she could see her father peeking through the crack in the door and taking a picture of the two for the old photo album.

The gorgon was content to lay there and let the effects of the hangover from last night slowly fade away, she was ashamed to admit it she may have let herself go a bit last night and get extremely blitzed alongside everyone else: she probably did some things she wasn’t particularly proud of as well as several things she was (such as starting a turf war that resulted in territorial genocide, clearing the way for her own businesses) but whatever fallout would occur from her actions during prom she would deal with promptly, she always did after all and if anyone else did something to her….may the powers that be have mercy upon their souls.

Valerie snuggled closer into her sisters neck with a light purr, tail curling around the latter’s thigh. Vera gently scratched the sweet spot behind her sister’s ears, eliciting a louder purr; although she’d fiercely deny it, Valerie actually did like to be petted from time to time especially behind the ears and Vera tended not only to tease her about it but also served as a source for such pats.

Focusing her gaze forward once again, Vera’s thoughts drifted towards a djinn going by the name Amira Rashid. 

Try as she might she simply couldn’t get that girl off of her mind, the way she spoke to her last night, all that she did, it made Vera see in her a new light of sorts that made her reflect on their interactions for the past few weeks.

‘You want to beat the other team? Use blackmail, one camera in their locker room is all it would take.’

‘Vera’s right. Why not recruit people who want to be bossed around….at a leather daddy convention.’

‘Don’t worry, I’ve got all sorts of dirt on this kid. Such as this convenient list that shows all of his greatest fears in orders of severity.’

‘If you really want to humiliate him, I’ve got this flower that makes a person fall in love with the first thing they see. We can make him fall in love with a chair or a houseplant!’

‘But Calculester, banks are full of money and money is the root of all evil. Therefore, removing money from the banks makes them less evil, it’s the right thing to do.’

Wow, Amira had actually been EXTREMELY helpful for the past few weeks. In fact now that she thinks about it she may have taken the poor girl for granted.

Amira was always willing to lend a hand with whatever shady shit she had been getting up to, no questions asked, and always had such great ideas on how to better exert dominance over others and advance one's goals. But she was far from being a pushover, more than once Amira proved she could certainly stand her ground and take what she wanted when she wanted it no matter who or what got in the way, the way she stood up to her former crush was a prime example of such

Then Vera though of all the gestures Amira had paid towards her, the most recent of which was also the one that held the most significance.

She never expected Amira to bring her the head of her number one rival on their dinner date as a gift, in fact at first she had thought it was a trick for them to end their rivalry only to realize that said rival was no longer breathing and had in fact been assassinated by Amira. She was too overjoyed at the prospect of having one of her worst enemies removed from the equation that she didn’t realize how thoughtful such a gift was.

Amira had taken the time to learn the identity of her rival, track them down, get in close to them and behead them, steal the head, wrap it, and deliver it to her in mere hours; that had to have been anything but easy and yet she thought so little of it at the time.

And despite all that she still pushed the djinn away? 

She felt like such a bitch right now and not in the good way.

Amira was a perfect match for her, a girl who was just as strong and driven as she was and could compliment her like nobody else could, but unfortunately it would seem as though she realized it too late. The djinn made it perfectly clear that she wanted nothing to do with her anymore.

‘No matter, Amira is an intelligent and reasonable woman. I’m sure I’ll find a way to get through to her, it’s only a matter of time.’

With that Vera straightened her back against her sister, intent on enjoying the rest of this fine morning cuddled up to her feline sibling while plotting 231 different ways she would go about seducing Amira before the school year was up.

None of which she would ever get to use.

***********************

Now unlike all his other friends, Scott Howl was not in fact at home in bed trying to sleep off the alcohol in his system. He was in fact doing what he usually did after he blacked out and woke up in a strange place with no memories of the previous night, covered in blood and other fluids:

Go for a run in his favorite park.

Lupin park was essentially Scott’s home away from home, he came here all the time to do all sorts of stuff ranging from chasing squirrels, playing fetch, peeing on everything, practicing sports with the wolf pack, or just generally frolicking around like the majestic idiot that he was. 

After about the twenty second lap around the lake Scott stopped to take a breather at his favorite tree, the one he had carved his name into with his claws so that everyone knew it was his. 

As he sat down and leaned against the bark of the old oak, Scott did something he very rarely did: he started thinking.

What consumed his thoughts you ask? Well it wasn’t the usual topics such as sports or where he had hidden his bones, instead his focus was on Vicky Schmidt the Frankenstein girl.

Ever since last night happened he had been having all these weird feelings towards her, especially after she kissed him full on the lips last night for a dare, and he had never felt like this towards anyone before which honestly confused him more than anything else ever has, including all the stuff Liam is always going on about l.

The best way to describe it would be he felt the same way about his favorite chew toy Mr.Snoot which he had around since he was just a pup back in elementary school, he never chewed on the old puppet anymore because it just meant too much to him to damage anymore and if anyone was to take it from him he didn’t know what he’d do but it wouldn’t be good. While it was close it wasn’t exactly the same feeling, sure he felt possessive of the dead girl and wanted to be as close to her as he could as often as possible and protect her from harm but he didn’t want to lock her away in his room like Mr.Snoots, he wanted to see her run free and grow with him by her side, he wanted to see her smile and be happy, and he just wanted to be there for her.

It was like friendship, but something about it, the very nature of said feelings made it feel like there was more to it than that, the relationship he wanted to pursue with Vicky was far deeper than friends.

Unfortunately he had no idea what that relationship was.

“Hey there sport!” A jolly and gruff voice said, bringing Scott back into reality.

Looking up from his spot, Scott saw that coach was standing above him in a neon jumpsuit with matching headbands coated in sweat, trademarked smile on his face.

“Oh hi coach!” Scott exclaimed happily.

“Something on your mind son?”

“Why do you ask?”

“Because I’ve never seen you sit in one spot for so long with a look of deep thought on your face.” Coach plopped down next to his star player. “C’mon, I’m your coach you can trust me.”

Scott tugged at his sweat coated shirt for a minute in nervousness before speaking. “I’m just a little confused coach.”

“About what?”

“Well it’s just that I’ve been having all these weird feelings towards Vicky ever since prom…..”

Over the next half hour or so Scott completely opened up to his coach, speaking with an uncharacteristic deepness and intelligence in his voice when conveying his new feeling towards this girl who he thought he merely saw as a friend but was now uncertain about that.

“.....so, what does it mean coach?” Scott said, finishing up his tale.

Coach heartily laughed in reply before firmly slapping the werewolf on the back. “Now Scott I may not be the sharpest knife in the place where they keep knives, but I’ve been teaching high school gym long enough to know when a monster is head over heels in love for somebody.”

“What?! No I don’t like Vicky like that! I just wanna be her friend!” Scott sputtered out, not even believing himself. 

“That’s not what I heard Scott, what I heard is that you’re trying to deny your true feelings for this girl because you think friendship is easier. Well let me tell you something Scott, nobody ever accomplished anything doing things the easy way, if you want something you have to work for it and be willing to take that risk just like in every sport ever.”

“But….but I already turned her down for prom, she probably doesn’t even like me that way anymore.”

“Scott Howl I did not act as a father figure to you so that you could make excuses.” coach sternly replied. “If you really love this girl then go and win her back, show her why she should love you again, you’re not a quitter are you?”

Scott stood up with an intense look of determination “no I’m not! You’re right, I do love Vicky! I’m gonna go find her right now and tell her how I feel and ask her to be my girlfriend!”

“Attaboy! Now go get her champ!” 

“Thanks coach!” Scott shouted before running off towards the park entrance.

Coach waved back with a smile. “Ah, to be young and in love, isn’t it grrrreat?”

*************************

The door to the diner opened with a ding from the overhead bell and a slam to the wall as Brian came through it.

“Table for four please.” Brian practically growled.

The zombie had one of Oz’s arm slung over his shoulder to provide support for his friend.

After dealing with an angry ham demon and a rather disgruntled voodoo priestess, neither of which were particularly pleased with last night’s events, the trio made it to the roof of spooky high and found their friend lightly toasted and half naked but otherwise unharmed.

After graciously lending the fearling her jacket, Amira suggested they go out to one of the greasy spoon diners around town and get some goddamn breakfast.

Which brings us to the here and now of the four of them sitting together in a retro style booth, a large spread of various breakfast delicacies set in front of them courtesy of Oz who had also woken up with about twenty thousand money in his pocket.

“So….” Brian said between sips of cranberry juice.

“So what?” Vicky replied, biting into a scream cheese bagel.

“Well Prom’s come and gone, we rocked the party and made some great memories, but where do we go from here?” Asked the zombie.

“Easy” Said Amira with a mouthful of boo-berry pancakes. “We start focusing on what’s really important again. Honestly, I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders ever since last night, no more having to worry about impressing Vera or her flunky friends, we can really start to get back to our roots guys.”

Oz fed a few berries to his phobias “Amira’s right, graduation is coming up soon and we need to start focusing on our futures, I mean we’re not gonna be in high school for much longer; it’s only a matter of time before life comes barreling down at us and we can’t afford to waste anymore time, without those unattainable dreams of romance holding us back we could do anything we want.”

Brain scratched the back of his neck. “Well I have kinda been neglecting my art lately, I’d be nice to get back to that, start building up a portfolio.”

“Oh man, I just realized that I need to start applying for colleges, thinking about majors and all that Jazz.” Said Vicky. 

“See! We can do fine on our own, I mean I’m not sure where I’m headed but I probably figure something out.” Oz exclaimed.

Amira was beaming in her seat, she was so proud of Oz right now. “Heh, since when did you become a hype squad?”

“Probably about the same time I got over Polly, now that I think about it things would probably never worked out between us. She’s a bit too wreckless for me, never knows how to slow down and really enjoy life; besides, I can’t be hung up on her forever right?”

A chorus of agreement was the response he got.

“I think I speak for all of us when I say I’m done with dating for a while.”

Vicky nodded. “Oh yeah, do not want to go through all that heartbreak again….heh.” A thought suddenly crossed Vicky’s mind. “Hey ya know what would be really hilarious? If Scott, Liam, Polly, and Vera all realized they actually liked us just as we got over them.”

The quartet paused for a moment before bursting out into a fit of uncontrolled laughter.

“Bwahahaha! Oh that would be so perfect! Imagine them trying to spend the next weeks winning us back while we constantly rebuff them.” Amira said.

“It’d- It’d be like one of those trashy romance fics Zoe loves so much. Where over time we’d slowly warm back up to them until we decide to give the relationship another chance.” Brian guffawed.

Oz’s phobias wiped the laughter induced tears from his eyes. “Oh think of all the wacky stuff they’d go through! Too bad it’d never happen.”

“Yeah, they don’t like us that way and we’re completely over them, at best we’ll all end up as friends by the end of high school and even that’d be a long shot.” Vicky added.

With that the table dissolved back into their usual conversation topics of future plans as well and who would clean up what parts of the house.

But meta humor aside, the next few weeks we’re going to be anything but normal for anyone….


	4. the dawn of a new chapter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> first day back at school and the beginning of the end for the graduating class of spooky high.
> 
> It's also where some of our favorite love interests learn it's not so easy to win back a scorned admirer.

The air was crisp and clear this Monday morning, spring was on its way out and summer was creeping towards the masses and with it came the next big event for Spooky High: graduation.

While getting a piece of paper that said you somehow survived going to a school of monsters despite all the odds wasn’t nearly as hyped up as the monster prom was it was still an important event nonetheless. It signifies a rite of passage in a young monster’s life where they make the crossover from being a high school student to a full fledged adult, despite the fact that most of the student body were already of adult age and somehow still in high school they all are all given the opportunity to dive into bigger and better things in their later years, find themselves, and make something of what they’ve gained through the years.

Some buckle down and hit the books hard, both figuratively and literally, determined to keep their grades up or catch up on missed classes after slacking off during prom season; others instead treat this as their last hoorah, getting everything on their high school bucket lists completed before they have to say farewell to spooky high for the last time. But in any case, high school graduation feels like the end of an era, a new beginning, or a horrible epilogue depending on who you are.

For the color squad, it felt like a bit of each; they had given up on finding love entirely for the time being thus ending their exploits motivated by their unquenchable thirst for their classmates, but with that ending came new freedom to act as who they truly were without any concern for others' opinions of them, no more dying to impress or doing what others wanted to do, from now on they’d remain true to themselves and nobody else.

Of course the question remained as to what they would do with all this freedom, but they’d figure that out after some serious introspection accompanied by classic montages.

At the moment, they were simply enjoying the walk over to school together in each other’s company.

“So you’re sure nobody saw you last night brian?” said Vicky.

“Positive” Brian replied with a wave. “Honestly the security at Spooky High is pretty poor, it was easy getting in and out.”

“Still though, I know you’re trying to get back in touch with your artsy routes but isn’t this a bit extreme for your return?”

“Maybe. But I haven’t picked up so much as a paint brush for weeks Vic and my follower count is dying on Mumblr, I wanted to return with a bang, just like the first time.”

“Fair enough” the patchwork girl replied.

“Well I think it’s awesome you actually had the balls to go through with it, bet it looks great.” said Amira. “Where did you put it anyways?”

Brian smiled. “South side, right above the entrance. Everyone’s gonna see it.”

“Oh I can’t wait to take a look.” Oz remarked. “So Vicky what’s next for you?”

“I’m gonna start working towards getting into Robert Lawernce Stine’s college for mechanically gifted mad scientists. It’s where my hero Dr. Herbert West graduated from.”

“Really?”

“Of course, remember the death ray I built for the 8th grade science fair?”

Ah yes, who could forget that day from monster middle school; Vicky had stayed up countless nights getting the chassis and beam just right, searching the junkyards around town almost daily for various parts, and generally putting everything into the project. The effort paid off as she ended up winning first prize at the science fair partly for the design of the ray gun and partly because she vaporized one of the judges and threatened the remaining members with the same fate unless they gave her that blue ribbon.

Those actions also gained her a medal of recognition from the local mad scientist community in addition to +3 boldness.

“You guys know how good I am at building stuff! Besides my grandfather Victor went there, I’m a legacy, they have to let me in!” Vicky said with her typical enthusiasm.

By that point the four of them had arrived at Spooky High’s front entrance, a large crowd had congregated just in front of the doors so that could admire a certain zombie’s handiwork.

Said zombie was discreetly beaming with pride, this was the perfect way to start off the home stretch of his high school career.

“So meet back up at lunch?” Said Amira.

Oz nodded. “Maybe we can finally sit with each other for a change. It’s been so long since we’ve done that.”

One quick group high five was shared between the friends and they walked off in several different directions, not knowing that all four of them would soon be confronted by the last monsters they’d ever want to see.

*******************

Moments earlier.

“Morning Scott!” exclaimed Polly as she met the werewolf in question in front of the school.

“Oh hi Polly! How are you?” Scott replied with the same enthusiasm as his ghostly bestie.

“Not bad. Just on my way to get some of Oz’s cute shadowy ass. What about you?”

“Well I’m gonna find Vicky and ask her to be my girlfriend, I was gonna do it yesterday but I couldn’t find her anywhere.”

Polly raised an eyebrow. “Wait, I thought you said you didn’t like Vicky like that?”

“Yeah but I figured out that I actually liked her more than a friend yesterday…....you don’t think she’s still upset over prom do you?”

“Pfttt of course not. Did you see how happy she was last night? She’s probably over it Scott, you’ve got nothing to worry about.” Polly said, dismissing his concerns entirely.

“Phew. Thanks Polly, I was really worried there for a- woah.” The jock’s gaze was suddenly drawn upwards, away from his friend.

“What? What is it Scott?” Polly turned her head and saw exactly what Scott was staring at “holy shit….”

It was at that moment that Liam pulled up on his scooter with a specially commissioned paint job.

With his ability to turn into a bat he could simply fly to school but that would be far too mainstream for him, there were at least five other students who did that too, only two of them were vampires and he would rather die than become a cliché.

But that was merely a passing thought in his mind, currently everything that occupied his focus was a specific zombie at school.

Ever since he had opened that damned gift, Liam couldn’t seem to shake the rotting boy out of his head. Going over every interaction they’ve had in the recent past from an unbiased view made him gain not only a slight admiration for Brian’s taste in culture but also the re-emergence of certain feelings of affection, the likes of which he has not felt for a long time now which only served to make him more confused on why they had emerged for Brian of all monsters.

“Hey there Liam!”

‘Oh god not now.’ 

A red arm draped itself over his shoulders and pulled him close to the demon.

“How’s the dork knight been lately?” Damien said with his usual cocky smile.

“Fine.” Liam spat, shoving the prince of hell off of his shoulders. “And could you have come up with a bit more of an original insult?”

“Oh fuck you, my insults are amazing.”

“Whatever.” 

“Hey by the way, you see the act of vandalism somebody did on the front of the school. It looks fucking metal!” Said the demon.

That made Liam look up from his Instagram page. “Wait what?”

“Right up there.” Damien Replied, pointing upwards.

Liam froze at the sight before him, across the windows, just above the front doors was an art piece that could put any postmodernist to shame.

It was obviously done in nothing but spray paint, however even with the obvious limitations of the medium the artist clearly pushed those limits to their fullest potential.

Everything from the shape to composition was the dictionary definition of perfection and the symbolism was just subtle enough to keep it hidden while also making it easy for a gifted mind such as his own to infer.

Even if the subject matter was extremely strange, it made his own pieces feel rather inadequate.

That’s when he noticed that there was a small scrawl in the corner of the painting, the initials B.Y. done in neon green paint. The letters themselves held absolutely no meaning to anyone.

Except for Liam of course.

He couldn’t decipher the meaning behind them either, but the style in which it was painted, the slightly messy scrawl, it matched up exactly with the signature on the drawing he had framed back at home.

Liam knew exactly who did this, and he needed to find them right now.

***********************

“Aaaaand done!” Amira said as she finished up the spell. “One fire enchanted sword hot and ready.” 

“So this will allow me to cast fireballs on demand as well as providing a +5 damage boost to ice based monsters?” Asked The Slayer.

“Yep. That’s about the long and short of it.”

“Excellent! It’ll get through the ice dragon dungeon in no time!” Replied The Slayer. “Well you kept your end of the deal, here’s payment as promised.”

Aavari tossed the djinn a small sack of gold and a crimson red orb.

“Thanks sweetheart. Come back if you need anything else enchanted.”

The Slayer waved goodbye to Amira, admiring and turning the scorching blade in her hand as she left.

Meanwhile the fiery haired beauty resumed her task of retrieving some unwanted clutter from her locker for burning; namely everything she had gotten from Vera and everything involved with that stupid pact her friends had made….

No, it wasn’t stupid. If anything the four of them grew even closer after the events of the past few weeks and joining forces to get dates was far from a bad idea, even if they ended up failing in their pursuit of love she still felt like the whole affair had a positive net gain, all things considered.

As for now she planned to ride out the last of her high school years in style, maybe take care of the last few names on her shit list, and make the most of the time she had left.

‘I wonder if I can find Leonard, I need some target practice.’ Amira thought to herself.

Right as she closed her locked door she was greeted by the sight of Vera Oberlin standing only a foot away from her, prompting Amira to yelp in surprise.

“Jesus fuck! How long have you been standing there?!” Amira shouted.

“Oh not too long. I’m actually surprised you didn’t notice me walking up to you.” Vera said. 

Welp there goes her good mood, if Vera was talking to her again then it probably meant that she needed Amira to do something for her that was very likely to involve illicit activities; while the fiery haired girl would have normally been happy to oblige, she was no longer willing to play lapdog to the queen bitch.

So she simply turned around and walked away, Vera still in the middle of a sentence.

“HEY! I was talking to you!” Vera said, chasing after her.

“I know, but let me save you the trouble and tell you I’m not interested.” The djinn shot back.

Vera side stepped in front of Amira, blocking her path. “You haven’t even listened to what I was going to ask, You could at least hear me out on this.”

Amira glared at Vera for a brief moment, before letting out a sigh.

“Fine, what the hell do you want?”

“Well I was wondering if you wanted to accompany me to dinner later tonight.”

“I’m sorry what?”

“I said do you want to go out tonight, I now realize that I may have misjudged you previously and wish to rectify such an error.”

Vera was fully expecting a yes from Amira, after all who could say no to her? A few weeks ago Amira would have been over the moon for such an offer, but that was then and this is now.

“Thanks. But no thanks Vera.” 

For the second time in a row, Vera had been completely caught off guard by this girl all with a simple set of words. She stood frozen like the statues that she so often created as Amira pushed past her.

She managed to regain her senses to turn around and grab ahold of the djinn’s wrist, stopping her in her tracks.

“No? What do you mean no?” Vera all but growled.

“I mean I’m not interested in a date Vera, not after what you did to me.” Amira replied, trying to pry her hand free from the mean girl’s grip.

“And what, pray tell, would that be?

Amira groaned. “Oh come on, I thought you were smart; you broke my heart Vera.” The dark skinned girl leaned in closer. “I wasted six weeks on you Vera, six weeks of catering to your every whim hoping that maybe I could impress you enough to gain your affections. When you shot me down after everything we went through together…..it hurt Vera, it hurt a lot, like you ripped out my heart; but then again you revel in that sort of pain don’t you?”

At least Vera had the decency to look ashamed at that comment.

“I will never get that time back Vera, all the opportunities I’ve missed out on because I wanted a gorgon girlfriend. I’ll admit it was fun while it lasted and I may have loved you then, but that’s over. You really think you can just invite me out and win me back just like that, as if nothing ever happened? Sorry, but it doesn’t work like that!”

Amira finally managed to yank her hand loose. “You had your chance to get with me Vera, we would have been this amazing power couple, and you turned it down. Now you’ll have to live with that for the rest of your life, wondering what could have been between us. I hope you’re happy with yourself, see ya.”

Amira then turned the corner and disappeared, leaving a stunned Vera behind standing still in the middle of the hallway.

For the first time in her life Vera felt regret, not the sort of regret where she could blame others for her failures but the sort of regret where the blame lied entirely on her. It infuriated her to no end and at the same time it filled her with even more desire, some of it leaking out of her eyes in the form of tears.

***************

Meanwhile in another part of the school a certain eldritch abomination was hard at work in the school library.

But he wasn’t on the computers gathering wealth through a wide variety of shifty and shady means ranging from mining bitcoin to gambling to blatant scams like one typically did when they went to the library, in fact he was nowhere near the computers at all.

No, Oz was in fact…..reading, that’s right folks this maniac had taken some of the books off the shelves and started to read them probably for the first time in the history of Spooky High.

Of course since he didn’t want to be bothered by the wide variety of shenanigans that passed through the library (I mean Vicky bringing Cal into the world was weird enough), Oz had retreated into the stacks and found a relatively barren row to park his behind and take a seat next to a pile of books he had scooped up.

One would think that he was reading textbooks in order to make up for lost time that he wasted partying during prom, but since this school was basically throwing high school degrees at it’s student body regardless of whatever they did he really didn’t need to, rather Oz was reading through a few some ancient texts that he had gone out of his way to hide during freshman year; banking on the fact that nobody here cared enough about academics to accidentally or intentionally stumble upon them, luckily he was right as they were all exactly where he had left them.

The purpose behind these specific books were that they told all about the various aspects of his species, the boy was trying to get in touch with his old powers, the ones he’s never used since….the last time he talked to mom….

Shaking off the repressed memories, Oz focused his attention back on the page; honestly he should have done this far sooner, according to these instructions he could do all sorts of stuff that would have come in handy in numerous situations during his high school career.

But as he was caught in the middle of his reading, he felt the air around him grow colder, the stench of various forms of alcohol drifting around, and the sound of books being haphazardly knocked off their shelves.

This could only mean one thing…..

“There you are boo! I’ve been looking all over for ya!” Polly exclaimed, phasing through the bookshelf Oz was leaned against, looking down at him still halfway lodged in the bookshelf.

Oz sighed and closed his book, setting it down with the others and stood to face Polly.

“If you’ve got a prank planned, I want no part of it.”

“Ooh, tempting but no. See there’s this rave going on tonight in the old abandoned amusement park that everyone goes to so they can do wild shit, you know the one right?”

Oz narrowed his eyes. “No. Neither you nor anybody else has ever brought that up before.”

Polly waved a hand in Oz’s face “eh, details details. I just wanted to ask you to come with me, maybe show me what those tentacles of yours can really do….”

Oz had to physically suppress a blush from coming across his face at that comment, especially when polly begun to squeeze her assets for additional emphasis on that point.

‘No...I can’t, I’m over polly, I don’t need her in my life anymore ...right?’

But unfortunately for the shadow boy, saying that you were over someone and then having that object of former affection standing in front of you essentially propositioning you were two very different things.

Between that eager smile and the fact that her chest was very nearly spilling out of her tank top made Oz realize something very quickly:

He was NOT over Polly just yet.

But the absence of thirst makes for a far clearer head, one that could recognize that if he did go through with Polly’s offer it would only result in more pain and heartbreak.

I’d be fun at first sure but she’d inevitably get bored of him and leave him for someone else with only a bedside note and a pool of regrets as evidence she was ever even there, no Oz had to be responsible for a change and move on from her…...it’s for the best.

“I-I’m sorry but no, I’ve got stuff to do.” Oz replied.

The effect was immediate, Polly’s face fell into a look of confusion before shaking it off and resuming her confidence facade.

“But you love partying! Remember prom night?!” 

“Not really, I blacked out for most of it but….I think I’m done with partying for the time being, I’m sick of waking up in weird places with a massive hangover Polly, I want to get back to what’s really important.” said Oz.

“Wha- what could be more important than partying?!” sputtered Polly.

“I can think of a few things but that’s beside the point. Honestly Polly I-I don’t think things would have worked out between us anyways, looking back on it we were just too different to begin with.”

That essentially shattered any form of confidence Polly still had about the situation and sent her spiraling into full on panic mode. Oz actually sounded really serious about that and if he was, that would mean the party animal within him would be forever trapped within him, never to see the light of day, and they would never become the party power couple she wanted them to be; she had to do something, and fast.

“What if...what if I go down on you right now?! Would that change your mind?!” Polly shouted, sounding more desperate with every word.

“Sex? In the library? Are you nuts?” said Oz with disgust. “if that’s your idea of fun then I’m glad I didn’t go to prom with you.”

What she didn’t know was that the thrill of such an encounter was actually very appealing to Oz, but he wasn’t about to give into temptation.

The shadow boy took in a deep breath and gave Polly a stern look, his phobias copying the expression with some making rather obscene gestures “Look Polly, we need to stop hanging out together, you’re a bad influence that I really don’t need in my life right now.

“BUT- BUT OZZY-”

“DON’T. CALL. ME. OZZY. Only my friends can call me that, now leave me alone!” 

Oz snatched up his pile of books and stormed off further into the stacks.

Polly would have given chase if it wasn’t for the fact that she had broken the ONE rule you had to follow in the library: no yelling. Scamming people on the library computers was totally fine as was stealing/destroying the books, but if you ever raised your voice in the library well then it would be crazy Martin the werebear janitor that would forcefully eject you from the place; like he did with Polly as he dragged her out by her ponytail into the hallways.

It nearly killed Oz to have to yell at her like that, to absolutely crush the girl but it needed to be done; it was the only way he’d be able to get on with his life.

************************

Scott had been running himself ragged around the school grounds; literally, as he had been running all over the place in search of Vicky.

But he couldn’t seem to find her anywhere: she wasn’t in class, she wasn’t in the library, she wasn’t in the bathroom, she wasn’t in the auditorium, and she wasn’t outside by the party tree. He didn’t know where else she could be, he’d already checked every spot in the school and most certainly didn’t forget to look anywhere.

“Are you doing alright there bud?”

Scott looked over to see Vera’s sister leaned up against the lockers with a phone in her hand.

“No, I want to tell Vicky how I feel about her but I don’t know where she is!” 

“She’s probably at the school pool right now.” valerie replied, returning her gaze to her phone. “You know, the one in the gym?”

“What? How do you know that?” sSott asked.

“I make it a point to keep tabs on all the outcasts, speaking of which what exactly did you do to her a few days ago?”

Scott gave the cat girl a blank look that said he had no idea what she was talking about.

Valerie sighed, “you don’t know? Vicky was just completely breaking down in the hallways and word on the street is you had something to do with it, it must have been pretty bad too for her to be crying like that…..”

The werewolf sucked in his lips. “C-crying? Oh man...I gotta find her and apologize.”

“Well don’t let me stop you dude, go to her aaand he’s already gone.” said Valerie, watching the jock sprint towards the gym.

Shoving the doors open to the pool, Scott frantically looked around for the patchwork girl amongst all the other monsters splashing around in the water and generally having a good time.

He finally spotted her getting out of the pool, her blue skin glowing with a watery sheen from the overhead lights, poofy hair rendered straight by the moisture, and a bikini that complimented her form in all the right ways.

Scott was momentarily stunned by the small girl’s beauty, his pants growing tighter in the nether regions as she shook some of the stray water out of her hair, and all he could do was stand there like an idiot and try to remember why exactly he had turned her down in the first place.

Vicky soon noticed the werewolf standing off to the side and jogged over to him with a friendly smile, chest bouncing with every step which made Scott blush even harder as he tried to focus his gaze somewhere else.

“Scott hey! How are you?” Vicky exclaimed, clasping her hands together.

“I-I’m good. How are you doing?”

“Oh you know the same old stuff, you have fun at prom? Honestly I wouldn’t know, I can’t remember anything after we got carried out of the gym.” Vicky replied with a chuckle.

“Yeah I did...uh Vicky listen I wanted to talk to you about something…”

Vicky just smiled, urging the werewolf to go on.

“It’s about what happened just before prom, I’ve been thinking hard lately and I’m really sorry about what I did and-”

“Don’t worry about it Scott.” Vicky said, cutting the werewolf off. “I’m not upset anymore.”

Scott let out a breath of relief. 

“In fact I think I know exactly what you’re trying to say.”

The werewolf’s eyes lit up like he had just found a new bone, was this really happening, did she still love him?

“And I would love to be friends with you!” exclaimed the frankengirl.

Wat.

“Yep, totally platonic friends who have no romantic feelings for each other whatsoever.”

No…

“I mean I was really broken up a few days ago after you turned me down, I had a crush on you for years and I dreamt of having you as my boyfriend so it really broke me when you did that. But now I can see that we’re way better off as friends.”

No stop….

“I don’t want to lose what we have to high school drama Scott, I don’t want to muddle things up with romantic junk, so I’ll accept your offer of friendship and let go of all that other stuff.“

Vicky no, please....

“Well anyways I’m glad we got that all cleared up, why don’t you get changed into your swim suit and hop in the pool! The water’s great!” 

On that note, Vicky turned on her heel and sprinted to the edge of the pool, jumping in cannonball style and making a massive splash in the water that was a bit out of proportion for a girl of her size. 

But Scott barely even noticed the epic cannonball as he was completely overcome with an urge to rip his beard out in frustration.

Is this that friendzone thing everyone keeps talking about? Cause if it was, it wasn’t as nearly as cool as he thought it would be. In fact in felt downright awful.

**************************

“There you are! If you were trying to make it difficult to find you, you could not have done a better job.” Liam shouted.

“Oh I don’t know, I think I could have done better, you managed to find me.” Brian said with dry sarcasm, his focus not leaving his sketchbook for even a moment.

Having been thoroughly satisfied with how his latest piece turned out, the zombie had decided to spend a bit of time alone to come up with some new ideas for future art pieces and the best place to do that would be under the football bleachers; nobody went there after all.

Or so he had thought.

Now Brian didn’t hold any sort of hatred for the vampire, the events of the monster prom made it alot easier for him to let go, but that didn’t mean he saw him as a friend either. It was more like Brian merely saw him as somebody he knew but didn’t care much for, he was however rather annoyed that the vampire was interrupting his creative process.

“Please, I know every spot in the school a creative muse would go to for inspiration; which is why I avoid all of them so I can avoid such cliches and-”

Brian slapped his notepad shut and glared at the hipster. “What do you want liam? I’m assuming you didn’t just come by to chat.”

Liam was taken aback by the deadpan tone of the zombie as well as the fact that he had shamelessly interrupted one of his infamous explanations.

Taking a moment to collect himself, Liam addressed the zombie.

“Why a penis dragon?”

Brian raised an eyebrow.

“On the front of the school, that dragon that bears a striking resemblance to a penis in terms of body shape. Were you the one that did it? I assume it was but I want to be sure.”

That prompted a smile from the rotting man. “Oh so the great liam de lioncourt has decided to graciously pass his judgment upon my humble piece of art, how lucky I am.”

“So it was you!”

“No it was satan claws, yes it was me! In all seriousness though, what did you think?”

Liam huffed. “I’m just trying to figure out why you painted it and more importantly how you did it so well.”

“I’m trying to get back into the art scene and I figured what better way to do it than to do something bold.” Brian said with a shrug. “Besides didn’t you see how detailed it was?”

That’s when it hit him. “So you were basically doing a deconstruction of the concept of juvenile delinquency by intentionally making an immature painting but putting a Herculean amount of effort into every single detail and did it in the medium of graffiti in order to hammer home that point?”

“And you thought I was a talentless hack.” Brian smirked.

“Okay okay I admit it I was wrong, but that’s not the only reason I came here; lately I’ve been having these ...feelings.”

Brian stared at Liam, not quite understanding where he was going with this

“Ever since I opened that gift you gave me, lovely form by the way, I can’t seem to stop thinking about you and everything you’ve done for me and I don’t know why I’m suddenly so fascinated by you. Be it your muscular physique, your raven dark hair, and-“

For the second time in a row Brian interrupted the vampire. “Well it could be that you’re having new affection for me or it’s just sexual tension”

“Wha-“

“I’d probably go with the latter though, two guys don’t spend so much time flirting with each other for so long and not have some of their primal urges start to come up” The zombie explained.

Liam almost facepalmed, how could he have been so blind? Of course it was just sexual tension, there was no other logical explanation.

“So you wanna just break it here and now? I’m not talking full on sex, a simple kiss on the lips should work.” Said Brian.

“Really?”

“Of course, we do it once and when neither of us feel anything we drop whatever emotional baggage we had and move on.”

After a moment of hesitation, the vampire moved in close to Brian and planted his lips upon the former’s.

That only made things worse….

Instead of causing the feelings to dissipate like Liam had anticipated, they grew stronger than ever before. The feel of Brian’s cold lips against his own, the scent of his form assaulting his senses, the way the man made him feel so small and vulnerable and yet safe in his embrace; when Liam kissed him, for the first time in a long time he felt ...warm.

And just as soon as it had begun, the kiss had ended with Brian wearing a soft smile.

“There, feel better now?” Said the zombie, very clearly unaffected by the kiss with no hint of romantic feelings in his dead eyes.

“Um, yes of course I do, no more of those weird feelings for me.” Liam lied. “Oh I just remembered I have stuff to do, goodbye!”

The hipster swiftly turned into a bat and then flew off towards the main building as fast as he could.

Brian could only shrug in response as he returned to his drawing of a naked clown stylized after a classical renaissance piece.

Meanwhile Liam returned to his humanoid form once he was sure the zombie couldn’t see him anymore and slammed himself into a row of lockers, sliding down to the floor and holding his head in his hands, trying desperately to catch the breath Brian had so devilishly stolen from him.

With that one kiss he quickly realized that he was not in fact having feelings of sexual tension, but rather a full blown crush on the corpse.

‘I don’t know what’s worse’ Liam internally monologued. ‘The fact that I’m stuck with these feelings, the fact that Brian doesn’t return them, or the fact that I’m now caught in a cliche.’

********************

It wasn’t long until lunchtime rolled around and with it came the melting pot of high school where all the cliques and factions congregated together for an hour or two everyday, one would expect this to be in a constant state of chaos and normally you’d be right with all the food fights, magic fights, verbal fights, regular fights, fight fights, and all the other crazy kinds of fights that went on when you get a bunch of hormonal monsters together in one place; however, today was a bit special in that there wasn’t any sort of fight going on or any other form of chaos, it was actually calm in the lunch room for a change with everyone eating and chatting like a normal high school lunch did.

What was the cause for this change you may ask? Well with the color squad all sitting together at the same table and hanging out, the spark that usually lit the powder keg of chaos that was the lunch room was missing meaning that no form of craziness could take place.

As for the individuals in question, they were pleased as punch with their recent decisions. It had been so long since the four of them had really gotten to hang out together like this, most of the time they were seated apart at other tables with their crushes, being chaos enablers/advisors for them, but for once they could actually just relax for a lunch together as friends and just enjoy each other’s company, it made them all happy.

You know who wasn’t happy? Half of the monsters that made up the popular crowd at Spooky High, I’m talking about Vera Oberlin who was glaring at the table that housed the color squad in envy; Scott Howl who was also looking at the same table but with an expression of longing; Polly Geist who was face down crying into her arms next to Scott, occasionally moaning ‘we could have been great!’ through her wails; and Liam De Lioncourt who had just arrived on the scene of the pity party looking rather flustered.

“So I take it you all had a rough day as well?” remarked Liam as he took the seat next to Vera.

“Oh you don’t even know the half of it, I asked out Amira and she basically told me I could go fuck a cactus….can’t say I really blame her though.” Vera replied with regret. “The saddest part is that even after she insulted me and told me we’d never be together, I want her even more now.”

“At least you weren’t friendzoned.” said Scott. “All this time I always thought the friendzone was a really cool place to be where everyone is friends, now I know why people hate it. It’s like watching someone eat a whole bag of treats in front of you and they won’t share.”

“Why didn’t I say yes?! Why didn’t I give the little dork a chance?! WHYYYYYY?!” Polly screamed through sobs before slamming her head back onto the table “now I’ll never get him back!”

“Wait, you mean to tell me that they rejected you all as well?”

Vera frowned. “Yes. Apparently they’ve all gotten over their little crushes and are no longer interested in us”

“It’s so unfair. Look at them, so happy and complete without us and we’re here wallowing in regret. All because we couldn’t see how great they were sooner.” Said Polly.

“Can’t say we don’t deserve this though, looking back we may have been a tad harsh on them all things considered. It’s a real shame too, they did turn out to be pretty cool.”

“So, we’re just gonna give up and accept that we can’t have them?!” Scott whined.

“Looks like it. Unless of course you know somebody that’s knowledgeable in paring up individuals together in a romantic setting despite their differences and has tons of stuff on the likes and dislikes of those four.” Said Vera.

Right then, Polly’s head shot up from the table like a cocaine fueled jack in the box.

“WAIT! THAT GIVES ME AN IDEA!” The party ghost shouted.

“Please tell me it’s not an orgy.” Groaned Liam.

“No, there will be plenty of time for that after we win them back, I just thought of the perfect monster to help us out!”

******************

“You want me to do what?” Said Zoe.

After lunch, the four of them sought out a certain eldritch fan girl for help with their romantic issues, or rather Polly sought her out and everyone else just followed.

They had found the eldritch horror in the middle of one of her numerous fan fictions, typing away on the school computers without a care in the world; that’s where Polly gave her pitch.

“I just told you, we need your help with relationship problems.”

“No I got that part, but I still don’t understand how I can help.” Zoe Replied. “Especially since you didn’t give me a lot of context in relation to that.”

“Look it’s simple.” Liam pushed his glasses up. “We turned down Oz, Vicky, Brian, and Amira for prom rather harshly. Then, upon later reflection, we all realized that we actually did have feelings for them but unfortunately they seem to have gotten over their crushes on us.”

“So, you want me to help you guys win them back?”

“Normally we’d go about this on our own but the problem is that well…..We actually don’t know anything about them, coupled with the fact that they’re not really willing to open up to us now makes seducing them fairly difficult.” Vera sighed “look are you going to help us or not?”

There was a brief moment of silence before all of Zoe’s eyes began to sparkle and she let out the loudest, most fangirlish squeal in the history of spooky high, cracking some of the library windows from the sheer pitch of it.

“OMGoodness! This is like a fanfiction come true! The adorable anime fan helping all of her best friends find true love with those they scorned in the past! Just like my own fanfic ‘human prom: the aftermath’!”

“So um, is that a yes?” asked scott.

“Of course it is, I promise that I will not stop, I will not rest for an instant until you are all sucking face with those major cuties! Meet me in one of the empty classes tomorrow afternoon and we can start planning how you’ll each get into their pants!” Zoe gushed.

The elder god swiftly scooped up her duffle bag full of fanfic notebooks and yaoi sketchpads and ran off into the school halls, rambling on about shipping names and lemon scenes, leaving her friends turned personal projects in the dust.

Liam was the first to speak up. “What...what have we done?”

“What we had to do Liam, what we had to do. Let’s just hope Zoe knows what she’s doing….” replied Polly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so to break it down:
> 
> Oz: still has a thing for Polly but believes he needs to get over it for his own good.
> 
> Amira: hates Vera for what she did to her and is holding a serious grudge.
> 
> Brian: done with Liam completely, just wants to ignore him and focus on his art.
> 
> Vicky: actually wants to have a relationship with Scott but only as friends.


	5. plans, paints, and plotlines

‘Okay Zoe this is your last chance to make your spooky high OTPs become canon, don’t screw it up’ Zoe internally monologued as she put the finishing touches on her battle plan.

One thing you have to know about the former eldritch horror is that she took shipping VERY seriously to the point where she would have entire walls of her home devoted to shipping charts.

The biggest and most elaborate of these had to be the so-called color squad at Spooky High, and who could blame her?

Between their respective personalities all being adorably charming in their own unique ways, combined with a near bottomless thirst for their classmates made them perfect fanfiction protagonists! Of course she didn’t write solely about them but more often than not they were the central subject of her fics and fan art.

Which was exactly why they were the centerpiece of the shipping chart comprised of dozens of different photographs and clippings of their various misadventures over the years with their various classmates, a series of differently colored strings connecting their various relationships between both the major cuties and the popular crowd ranging from the three way bromance between Damien, Scott, and Oz to everyone’s mutual hatred of Leonard.

Of course a shipping chart wouldn’t be complete without some OTPs and when prom season rolled around it became fairly obvious who wanted to bone who. 

Then she caught wind of what happened between said OTPs at prom and was actually a bit bummed out over it; not just because her friends had to go through that heartbreak but now all her hard work that went into the shipping chart was now invalidated.

At least now she had a chance to set things right for everyone.

A series of booming knocks followed by the door falling off its hinges and slamming onto the ground brought Zoe out of her quiet contemplation, making her realize she had been starting at her shipping chart for a good twenty minutes now.

“Whoops.” Said Scott. “My bad. I got too excited again.”

“It’ll be fine Scott. Students break down the doors around here all the time, Damien broke three this morning just for fun.” Remarked Liam, kicking the splintered wood aside as he strolled in, the rest of his friends following closely behind. 

Being the first one in the room also meant the vampire was the first to notice the massive collage taking up an entire wall of the classroom.

“Uh Zoe, what’s that?”

“Why it’s my shipping chart for spooky high of course!” Exclaimed the eldritch monster “and the key to getting back the romance you’ve all lost!”

“Why is there a picture of you and Oz cosplaying on it?”

Polly quickly floated over to the mess of picture and discovered that there was indeed a picture of the fearling dressed up in a bright orange jumpsuit and a matching headband with Zoe next to him wearing a strange orange and black striped hoodie. 

Upon further investigation the partygeist noticed that there was a bunch of pictures of Zoe hanging out with the members of the color squad be it reading fanfics, drawing yaoi, or signing karaoke. 

Before Polly could get out a word, Zoe beat her to the punch.

“What? We’re friends. We hang out and do stuff together.”

“Since when?” Polly replied.

“Since I met them last year, duh. Can we get back to the matter at hand, which is helping you all get into their pants?” Replied the anime fan.

After a few seconds everybody had gotten situated and Zoe began her presentation.

“Now then, normally the color squad would be easily seduced by any one of you; they are, or at least they were, the thirstiest monsters in the whole school. But after you guys shot them down for prom and made their dreams crash and burn, they developed a state of mind that is a nightmare for any monster with a crush: a sense of self worth. Oz, Brian, Amira, and Vicky have developed these things called ‘standards’ which means that they won’t just jump at the chance to date you anymore, if you want them back you’re all gonna have to earn them back.” Zoe explained. “Yes Scott?”

The werewolf lowered his hand. “Well how do we do that?”

“By doing the exact same thing they did when they tried to seduce all of you: Showing them why you’re worth their love and affection by helping them out and going on wacky hijinks with them! Unfortunately, that’s where you’re at a bit of a disadvantage here.”

Vera leaned forwards “how so? I mean if they could do it to us so easily how hard could it be?”

“Because the color squad knew a whole lot about you personality wise from the start and over the past few weeks they learned a whole lot more about you all. On the other hand you guys know next to nothing about them, you don’t know their likes and dislikes, their hobbies, you don’t even know their backstories and the lore that comes with it.”

“I assume that’s where you come in.” Liam remarked with crossed arms.

“Correct! Between hanging out with them as a friend and my obsession with everyone’s lore and backstory, I know exactly the type of people they are.”

Producing a classroom pointer stick from god knows where, Zoe smacked it against the board.

“So here’s the plan…..”

*********************************

“Useless whelp. How dare you turn your back on us!”

“Stop concerning yourself with mortals. They are insects beneath our feet.”

“Fool. Giving up your power over worldly concerns? Pathetic…”

Oz’s eyes snapped open as he shot up with a start, going into a full on panic until he let out a sigh of relief when he realized he was still in his room.

It had been a long time since he had a nightmare like that.

One about his past, about the monster he used to be ...about his family.

Oz shook away such thoughts, that period of his life was over, he wasn’t like that anymore and neither his mom nor his siblings have even tried to find him; the fearling was certain that as far as any of them knew he was gone for good, and Oz preferred to keep it that way.

Brian, Amira, and Vicky were his family now.

‘Hard to believe it’s been 15 years since we’ve met.’ Oz thought to himself as he helped himself out of bed.

His calm was utterly shattered by the sound of two large objects tumbling down the stairs, causing the shadow boy to nearly hit the ceiling in surprise.

When he got to the stairwell the eldritch horror saw a certain zombie’s body pinned beneath a large artist’s easel, limbs twisted in all the wrong directions with the accompanying head nowhere to be seen.

Oz looked around the room, trying to find his fallen comrade’s cranium.

“Brian?” Said Oz

“Over here!” Brian shouted. “I rolled under the coffee table!”

It took Oz all of about five minutes to retrieve his friend’s head and snap it back onto the body, which was also promptly freed from it’s spot at the bottom of the stairs and it’s limbs realigned.

“Thanks Oz, lost my footing about half-way down.” Replied Brian as he checked the easel for damage.

“Brian you know how heavy that thing is. Why didn’t you ask one of us to help you?”

The zombie shrugged. “Vicky left for the scrap yard to get some spare parts for gizmos, Amira went off to do a deal with the coven, and you were sleeping.”

“Fair enough. So anyways, what are you planning to paint?” 

“Well I was gonna do a landscape of our backyard but since you’re up now, would ya mind modeling for me Oz? All you’d have to do is stand still for a bit.” Asked Brian.

That made Oz hesitate for a moment, the last time he posed for one of Brian’s drawings the zombie had posted it online without the former’s knowledge, leading to a series of events that nearly split apart their friendship back in monster middle school.

Then again, they weren’t dumb kids anymore, they had grown up and matured and Brian had sworn up and down that he had learned from the incident; how bad could it be this time around?

“Well...okay, but this has better not end up on mumblr like last time.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it dude, now strip naked and stand on top of that box over there.” Brian said, pointing to a wooden crate set up in the middle of the living room.

‘I have got to learn how to say no.’ the fearling thought to himself as he pulled off his shirt.

*********************************

Meanwhile, in an abandoned warehouse somewhere in downtown Monsteropolis, Amira Rashid was having the time of her life.

It was supposed to be a simple exchange, she’d help the Coven conjure up some holy fire to defeat the ‘big bad’ that they always seemed to be in perpetual conflict with and in exchange they would pay her with valuable artifacts for her service.

But of course in a completely melodramatic fashion, Dimirti showed up with some of his dark side goons and demanded the djinn fork over the holy fire, offering her membership to the dark side if she complied and utter destruction if she did not.

Amira’s response? A quick fireball to the face.

Which brings us to the chaotic here and now, a massive fire/magic fight between an evil cult and some witches with their djinn sidekick, both sides lobbing massive amounts of offensive magic at each other in the style of an action movie shootout.

Thankfully much like those movies, the bad guys couldn’t shoot worth shit, essentially making them free game for Amira.

Of course with near endless waves coming at her, Amira started to tire out and ducked behind cover. Hope, the short member of the coven, took her place with Joy right next to her sister in arms.

“Man, this is not how I planned my afternoon going. I can’t complain though.” Amira remarked

Faith could only shrug “this is fairly normal as far as these events go, at least for us, we try to conjure up a powerful magic force to combat evil which inevitably attracts more evil.”

“Sounds frustrating.”

“It can be but that’s the price we pay for saving the world on a weekly basis. By the way, girl to girl, how have you and your friends been dealing with recent developments?”

“Oh so you heard about that huh? Don’t worry about us, we’re better off than we’ve ever been.”

“really? “ said Faith with a raised eyebrow. “Even in Oz’s case?”

That was Amira’s turn to adopt a quizzical expression. “Wait, what’s going on with Oz? He seemed fine to me.”

“Nothing that I know of, it’s Polly that I’m concerned with. You may not know this but we’re rather close, in more ways than one, and she tends to tell me things especially when she’s drunk.”

“Faith, what are you getting at?”

“I’ll just cut to the chase here.” said the witch, moving her head to dodge a shower of splintering wood. “Polly wants Oz back.”

That made Amira freeze solid, but the djinn quickly recovered and launched five more fireballs into the advancing crowd before ducking back behind the oddly durable wooden crate that was serving as their shield.

“WHAT?!” yelled Amira.

“I just told you, Polly wants to get back together with Oz. She told me while crying over her lunch cocktails earlier today.” 

“No I got that part, but why?”

“From what I could tell.” said Faith, using a cold spell to freeze several kobolds in place. “Polly feels a profound regret over spurring Oz’s affections the first time around and wants to make amends, the only problem is that he doesn’t seem to feel quite the same way anymore.”

Amira scoffed, doing a forward somersault to swap her cover and get a clearer shot at some rather rambunctious rat people. “Of course he doesn’t, do you know how much she hurt him when she shot him down? I found Oz crying in the bathrooms that day!”

“And are you sure about that? Because I’m not quite sure your friend has truly gotten over his crush.”

“Okay what are you talking about now?” asked Amira as she put an orc into a headlock, smashing his face in all the while

“I notice things Amira, it’s one of the benefits of being the smart and mysterious member of the Coven; I tend to pick up on things that others might not see, such as when a spurned lover still has some affection in their heart.”

“So you’re saying Oz still has a crush on Polly?”

“Not exactly, I saw what happened in the library yesterday. I’m saying he is still attracted to her, but is attempting to grow out of it.” replied Faith, casting a quick healing spell on Joy to keep her in the fight.

Oz did tell her about that, heck they all shared their encounters at lunch yesterday and the sheer empowerment that they felt from it. But the fearling had never told her that he still had some latent feelings.

Part of her wanted to help polly, to encourage Oz’s feelings and get them back together again. But that part was swiftly overpowered by her more protective instincts towards the shadow boy.

Who the hell does Polly think she is? The ghost can’t just break Oz’s heart one day and expect to get him back like nothing had ever even happened, the fearling deserved better than that.

Credit where credit was due, Amira loved the new BOLD and FUN demeanor that Oz adopted as a side effect of hanging out with the party geist, but that doesn’t change the fact that Polly had hurt her friend right down to his core and there was no way Amira was gonna let that slide.

“Look I’m not here to pass judgement or tell you what to do.” said Faith, pushing the firey haired girl out of the way of a flying axe. “I’m only telling you this out of respect for you and your friends, even if they have been somewhat of a nuisance on occasion. It’s up to you what you do next.”

That made Amira think, what was she going to do next? On the one hand she could keep her distance and let things play out, Oz was still an adult and he could take care of himself if he had to. But on the other hand Oz was like the little brother she never had, just as how Vicky was like a sister and Brian was the older brother of the group, and as such she wanted to protect him just as much as the rest of her friends, particularly from monsters that would break their hearts.

“I’m not sure, I’ve gotta think about this for a bit. Thanks for telling me Faith.” Amira replied.

“No problem.” replied the tall witch. “Oop, looks like they’re retreating.”

“YOU HAVEN’T SEEN THE LAST OF ME COVEN! I SHALL RETURN AND-” Dimirti’s monologue was tragically cut short by a fireball striking him in the center of his meticulously trimmed chest, knocking him back into the portal he had summoned up as an escape route quite roughly.

The three members of the coven looked back at the fiery haired girl who served as the source of said fireball.

“What? He left himself open, besides he was probably going to talk for another fifteen minutes about how he was going to take revenge on us and I don’t have time for that. So can we just get back to making that holy fire you guys wanted so badly?” the djinn replied with a shrug of her shoulders.

“Fair enough.” said Joy “we’ve wasted enough time with that battle as is.”

As they reset the ritual circle (because every powerful spell needs one of those) Amira couldn’t help but have her thoughts keep drifting back to what faith had told her.

‘You know what. I’ll leave it be for now, it’s just Polly, Oz can probably handle her on his own. But then again….’

Amira shook it off as she grasped the magical chalk and drew the upside down crosses on the outer edge, she could always talk to Oz about this later, right now she had some magic fire to summon.

*********************************

“And then as the sun sets on this chapter of our lives, you’ll all be smooching together as happy couples and live happily ever after.” Zoe said, finishing up her presentation with an extremely well drawn picture of the scene she had just described.

After sitting through roughly an hour long presentation regarding exactly how they were going to win back the hearts of their crushes, the seven monsters sitting before the eldritch cutie were ...pleasantly surprised.

Given the fact that this was Zoe they had sought out for help, they had half expected the girl to come up with some kind of insane scheme taken straight out of one of the anime shows she loved so much, a scheme that would involve outfits that were way too tight around the curves and what not.

(Granted that was part of it but I digress)

But what they received instead was an extremely well thought out plan of attack that utilized their various strengths to successfully conquer the hearts of the color squad, it may have been a bit...explicit in some of the illustrations but Zoe still got her point across easily.

“Any questions guys?” Said Zoe 

“Well one, where did you get those nudes of Oz? And B, can I have some copies of them?” asked Polly with a light blush.

“You’re better off not knowing, and yes you can. Anything else?”

“So just to be clear; the strategy is to learn as much as we can about the color squad and use that knowledge to seduce them?” remarked Liam.

“And work together with each other, you guys have to work together otherwise this whole plan isn’t gonna work.” Zoe replied before a werewolf interrupted her.

“YAY FOR TEAMWORK!” exclaimed said werewolf

“That’s the spirit Scott!”

“Alright then, looks like we’ve got a plan of attack. I’ll take the liberty of running reconnaissance on our targets, with my connections getting information about the four of them should be simple.” said Vera before turning to Zoe. “not to say your information wasn’t useful, I’m rather surprised and slightly disturbed by how much you know about the four of them considering you met them only last year.”

Zoe blushed and smiled. “Aww it’s nothing, just doing my job as everybody’s favorite eldritch fangirl.”

“And we thank you for that Zoe.” replied the gorgon. “But I think we’ll need a bit more if this is going to work, should only take a couple of days. Until then we should make ourselves scarce around our crushes, they’re probably still mad or at least Oz and Amira are.”

“Yeah you’re probably right.” said Polly. “I wonder what they’re doing right now?"

*********************************

Amira looked between Oz and Brian, her mind trying to process the scene before her that defied all logic and reason.

She had just gotten home from her little outing with the coven, armed with new knowledge about her best friend and former crush, she had spent most of the trip over plotting her next course of action involving the current situation and had rationalized that talking it out with Oz would probably be the best option. Letting him lay out all of his feelings on the table might make it easier for her and the rest of his friends to help him with his little ghost problem.

But her mind completely blue screened the moment she opened the door and beheld what lied behind it:

Oz was standing on top of a box, wearing nothing but a pink thong, his upper body covered in what looked like tribal paint mixed in with clown makeup, he was holding a plushie made in his likeness above his head like he was offering it to summerian elder gods.

Meanwhile Brian was sitting in front of an easel, the zombie lightly stained with paint, and the entire scene being painted out in a style similar to pablo picasso which only added to the overall surrealism of the scene.

“Is...this is an art thing right?” asked the djinn as her mind finally managed to get through it’s rebooting process.

“Yep.” Brian replied, not once looking up from his work.

“Did he pressure you into this Oz?”

“No no” replied the fearling. “I agreed to help him out.”

“Okay then...I’m just gonna go...yeah.”

As Amira quickly moved past the two, trying to shake the whole thing off alongside the mortifying blush on her face, she resolved that she would talk to Oz about his feelings later ...much later.

*********************************

“Meh. It’s probably nothing interesting” said Polly.

“Well if we’re all done, I’ve got an art film showing to get to. They’re showing ‘why does everything have eyes’ at 3 today.” said Liam, glancing at his pocket watch.

“But...it’s four right now.” said Scott.

“Of course, any cultured person knows you have to show up to an art film an hour and a half late to truly appreciate it.” 

That did absolutely nothing to curb Scott’s confusion so he just smiled and nodded like the good boy that he was and pretended that he understood like he always did when he didn’t understand liam.

“Alright everyone, keep in touch. There’s only two months left until graduation and we all go our separate ways, the last opportunity for a high school romance and true love. Let’s do this.” said Zoe, determination to make her ships become canon running through her eldritch form.

With that everyone piled out of the room, thoughts of love and seduction with a clear plan in mind on how to win back what was lost to them.

Of course even the best laid plans can be disrupted by unexpected events, a lot of which could occur within the span of two months; but again the students of spooky high were young and unafraid and they were ready for anything ...right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry this took so long to get out, especially considering it's not even as long as my other chapters. It's just been a mix of family drama, busy college work, and a lack of motivation to write that's been keeping me away from this.
> 
> I am not abandoning this story, I can promise you that. I will see this through to the end even if it means selling my soul for creative powers, so thank you for everyone who's still reading and supporting this story, it's all for you guys :)

**Author's Note:**

> written for a tumblr prompt.
> 
> buckle up, this is gonna be a helluva ride with more pining than any other fic


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